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N e/^ BY 

jflfwOODBRIDGE 

-A Ruling Elder In The 

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

Marshall, Missouri 

Author of 

HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

In Saline County, ^Missouri 



Sroafcmag pubitBJjtttg (Knmpang 

New York 

£Mo1> 



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; 



jUsHARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooles Received 
OCT ? I90r 
~ CowhsM Entry ._ 

CLASS_A XXc, No. 
COPY fe. / 



Copyright, 3907. 

BY 

J. L. WOODBRIDGE 



*4tf Rights Reserved. 



INSCRIBED TO 
MY BIBLE CLASS. 



WHY THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN. 

BECAUSE: (i) While there have 
been many large books and treatises 
upon the subject, I have never seen 
one but which merely gave the Scrip- 
ture references. The ordinary man 
has not the time and patience to hunt 
out these references; and so remains 
in ignorance of the most forceful fea- 
tures, the Scriptures themselves. In 
this treatise every Scripture is given 
in full, making the discussion connected 
and available. 

(2) In sermons upon the subject, 
when the Scripture quotations are read, 
they generally fall upon disinterested 
ears. Say what we will, the average 
congregation does not like Bible quota- 
tions read. Unless they can be given 
from memory, they generally tire the 
hearer; the connection being broken 
by the time lost in "finding the place." 
There is so much Bible involved in the 
Abrahamic Covenant, it constitutes one 
of the most difficult subjects the min- 
ister has to handle from the pulpit. 

(3) As generally treated, it involves 
only a limited area of the Bible and of 
the subject; while really the events 



ii Introduction 

leading up to the Covenant are almost as 
important as the Covenant itself; and 
the events subsequent to the closing of 
the sacred Record, pertaining to the ful- 
fillment of the prophecies, are of thrill- 
ing, pertinent interest to the Church. 

(4) On account of the low state of 
interest in the Church in the subject. 
Recently, because of existing condi- 
tions, a church within the bounds of 
Lexington (Va.) Presbytery sent up an 
overture to Presbytery to take action in 
the matter, to promote better observ- 
ance. It is even predicted by some who 
do not believe in this Covenant relation 
that the practice of infant baptism will 
ultimately be abandoned ; and while this 
is, of course, preposterous, yet it is safe 
to say that not twenty-five per cent, of 
the adult membership of the Church are 
well informed upon the subject; our 
people are generally content to remain 
satisfied with the notion that the doc- 
trine is safely imbedded somewhere 
back in the Old Testament; so deeply, 
however, that it takes a theologian to 
dig it out; when the fact is, it is very 
plain and simple. 

(5) It is written by a layman, for 
the use of the lay membership. It may 
not be of special interest to ministers, 
because they know these things already ; 
but for the busy man, with only an hour 
or two on Sunday afternoon, and for 



Introduction iii 

the advanced Sabbath School scholar, 
it presents a short, plain, connected 
statement of doctrine, very dear and 
essential to Presbyterians. 

While it apparently bears a double 
title, yet, like the two dreams of 
Pharaoh, as interpreted by Joseph, the 
book is one; the one section being a 
complement to the other. For, while 
it fully embraces the Abrahamic Cov- 
enant, it really covers a great deal more 
ground. The Hebrews were certainly 
in the beginning the repository of the 
Covenant; and their abandonment of 
its privileges, coupled with the result- 
ant disastrous consequences and the 
prophecies as to their future, constitute 
a matter of great interest and concern 
alike to the Christian and to the Jew. 
The Author. 

Marshall, Mo., 1907. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. Page. 
The Flood I 

CHAPTER II. 
The Prophecy of Noah 4 

CHAPTER III. 
The Call of Abram 7 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Covenant 13 

CHAPTER V. 
Nature and Scope of the Covenant .... 18 

CHAPTER VI. 
Nature of Circumcision 20 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Covenant Under the New Dispensation. 26 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Conversion and Work of Apostle Paul 31 

(Chederlaomer) 



ii Contents. 

CHAPTER IX. Page. 

After the Close of the Inspired Record. ... 38 

CHAPTER X. 
The Covenant in the Epistles 42 

CHAPTER XL 
Applications of the Seal in the New Testa- 
ment 50 

CHAPTER XII. 
What is Baptism For? 54 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Balance Sheet 60 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Practical 63 

CHAPTER XV. 
What of the Sons of Shem ? 68 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Mystery of the Jew 83 



The Story of the Covenant. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE FLOOD. 

The Flood cut square across human history. 
Except the Scriptures, there is no record of 
human events or history prior to that vast con- 
vulsion of nature. 

As classed in the Record, two lines descended 
from Adam and Eve : ( I ) The Cain- 

„ v ' TheCainites. 

ites, or sons of men. The account 
of this line of descent is meagre; but enough 
to show that they were worldly, vengeful and 
wicked. (2) The Sethites, or the 
"Sons of God." The line of this de- 
scent is carefully given, with full dates, and in it 
are found Enoch and Noah. 

The sixth chapter of Genesis records the 
merging of the two lines by intermar- 

. . . Amalgamation. 

riage, with the most disastrous conse- 
quences: universal wickedness, hopeless deprav- 
ity resulted; and the earth was corrupt in the 



2 The Story of the Covenant 

sight of God, and was filled with 

Disaster. . „ ... 

violence; till every imagination of 
the thoughts of the heart of man was only evil 
continually." 

And Jehovah said, "I will destroy man from 
the face of the earth; man, beast, creeping thing, 
and the fowls of the air." 

But Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah, 

because he was a just man, and per- 
Noah. . , . , . , , , 

feet, and he received the order to 

build the ark for the preservation of himself and 
family, and of species of every living thing of 
all flesh and fowls and creeping things. 

There is no valid argument against the uni- 
Universaiity versalit y of the Flood. The theory 
of Flood. that it was only local, in order to ac- 
complish the ends of Jehovah, is not borne out 
by the statements of the Record, or the prob- 
able facts, (i) As to the population. Man had 
been on the earth at least sixteen centuries. 
When it is considered that from Abraham and 
Sarah, in less than four hundred years, about 
three million souls started out from Egypt to 
Canaan, geometric proportion, with the addi- 
tional fact of the long lives of men prior to the 
Flood, naturally and probably would place ante- 
diluvian population at untold millions; with the 



and the Mystery of the Jew 3 

probability of their living on every accessible 
portion of the globe. 

(2) The language of the Scriptures. The 
popular notion that "it rained forty days and 
forty nights" alone, is ridiculously fallacious. 
In no part of the Record is the language grander 
and more intense and cumulative than in de- 
scribing this great upheaval of nature; second 
only in its power and consequences to the Crea- 
tion itself. The intent of Jehovah was to DE- 
STROY; and He destroyed. Only the rocks 
and hills were left; not a trace or a vestige of 
what was before, has ever been discovered. We 
stand in awe in the face of such inspired lan- 
guage as this: "The foundations of ForceofIn . 
the great deep were broken up, and s P ired language 
the windows of heaven were opened." 
"And the waters prevailed and were increased 
greatly upon the earth." "And the waters pre- 
vailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the 
high hills that were under the whole heaven 
were covered"; "and the mountains were cov- 
ered." "And every living substance was de- 
stroyed that was upon the face of the ground; 
man, cattle, creeping thing and fowl; and Noah 
only remained alive, and they that were with 
him in the ark." 



The Story of the Covenant 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PROPHECY OF NOAH. 

The Record relates in detail of the emergence 
from the ark of Noah and his wife, and of his 
three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and imme- 
diately subsequent events. 

In the latter part of the ninth chapter of 
„ , Genesis is recorded a three- fold 

rropnecy 

of Noah. prophecy by Noah. The subject 

under discussion here has to do with only one 
section of this prophecy; parts of the 26th and 
27th verses: 

BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF 
SHEM ; 

GOD SHALL ENLARGE JAPHETH, 
AND HE SHALL DWELL IN THE TENTS 
OF SHEM. 

The fulfillment of this prophecy is one of the 
marvels of the history of Redemp- 

Ethnology. ... , . 

tion, as will be seen later on. 
The tenth chapter of Genesis is the basis of 
ethnological science. The subsequent subdivis- 
ions of the human races are all subordinate to 



and the Mystery of the Jew 5 

this. The eleventh chapter records the rebellion 
of man, under Nimrod, against the Riseof 
government of God. "Let us build" Paganism, 
constitutes in essence the rise of paganism. 
Jehovah, by one stroke ; by a method as effective 
as it was divine in its conception, 

. . , Babel. 

according to His original purpose, 
scattered man over the earth. The result, as re- 
corded, was as follows: 

THE SONS OF SHEM: Ara- 
bia, Syria and Persia. traces"* ° f 

THE SONS OF HAM: Africa 
(and along the north coast of the Indian Ocean, 
and Canaan). 

THE SONS OF JAPHETH: (Particularly 

Gomer and Javan) Europe, as now occupied by 

Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, 

Southern Russia, Denmark, Holland, the British 

Isles, etc. 

****** 

The centuries pass on. The hand of God was 
directing the keeping of the record of a partic- 
ular line from Shem; for from that line, Shiloh 
was to come, and it was to be the repository of 
His Church. The Covenant of Works had been 
broken; the Covenant of Grace was to be insti- 
tuted. Shem, Arphaxad, Cainan, Line of descent 
Salah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, of Abram - 



6 The Story of the Covenant 

Nahor, Terah, constituted this line of descent 
from Noah. Two thousand and fifty years be- 
fore Christ found the sons of this descent settled 
down in the valley of the Euphrates; the home 
of polytheism, polygamy and idolatry. 



and the Mystery of the Jew 



CHAPTER III. 
the call of abram. 

Jehovah placed His hand upon one of these 
men; Abram, the youngest son of Terah. It was 
His divine purpose to transform him into the 
Father of the Faithful; to remove this strong 
character from his idolatrous, pagan Callof 
surroundings; to give him the Great Abram. 
Charter of the Church on earth for all succeed- 
ing generations; to establish the Covenant of 
Grace; for Abram was to "believe in the Lord, 
and it would be counted to him for righteous- 
ness." 

In unquestioning obedience to the divine call, 
he leaves, for all time, his home city, 
Ur of the Chaldees. Up the valley 
of the Euphrates, six hundred miles or more, 
they go; unfortunately, his father and his fam- 
ily with him. At Charran they stop and settle; 
until again the call of God comes, 

. Charran. 

emphatic and strong: Get thee out 

of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from 



8 The Story of the Covenant 

thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew 
thee"; and with this call are the first promises: 
Genesis, xii — 2. And I will make of 
The first thee a great nation, and I 

promise. w [\\ t>i ess t hee, and make thy 

name great, and thou siialt be a bless- 
ing. 

3. And I will bless them that bless 
thee, and curse them that curse thee, 
and in thee shall all the families of the 
earth be blessed. 
Again obedient to the call, Abram moves on ; 
Leaves deviating slightly from the terms of 

Charran. the command in permitting his 

nephew Lot to accompany him; an error which 
resulted in much subsequent trouble to him; till 
by Lot's own choice, he was rid of him during his 
lifetime; though Lot's descendants were per- 
petual thorns in the side of Abram's descendants. 
In due time Abram reaches Canaan, and the 
long sojourn of four hundred and thirty years 
was begun. But Abram is far from ready, in 
Jehovah's mind, from being worthy to enter 
into covenant relations; twenty-three long years 
are to pass ; years of frequent unfaith, of trial 
and of training; a sojourner in strange lands, 
before he is to receive the highest testimonial 
of the confidence of Jehovah, ever given to mor- 
tal man. 

Eight years afterwards Abram appears in 



and the Mystery of the Jew 9 

contact with international history; and, follow- 
ing his successful conflict with Hammurabi 
(Chederlaomer.) and his confederate 

- . 1 » • 1 r 1 Hammurabi. 

kings, as recorded in the fourteenth 
chapter of Genesis, he appears to have entered 
into a period of un faith and discouragement; 
when the Lord appeared to him in a vision, with 
His reassuring 'Tear not, Abram"; and, as 
recorded in the following Scriptures, guaran- 
teed by a ceremonial ratification in vogue at that 
day, assured him 

( 1 ) That his promised heir should come from 
his own loins. _.. i 

Discouragre- 

(2) That his seed should be as the m n e H nt ° f A£? m 

x / and promises. 

stars of heaven for multitude. 

(3) That he would give him the land of 
Canaan for an inheritance; and by prophecy, 
foretold to Abram the future slavery of his 
descendants in the land of Egypt, accompanied 
with the promise that they should come out with 
great substance; and certifying to the whole 
with the first appearance of the SHEKINAH ; 
that divine manifestation which was to indicate, 
in the years to come, the dwelling of the Lord of 
Hosts with His Church. . 

The essence of this great event was the giving 
to Abram: in modern parlance, exe- Deedt0 
cuting to him a deed to, the land ; the Ca n a an- 



io The Story of the Covenant 

actual possession to be deferred to the day when 
"the iniquity of the Amorites be full"; certify- 
ing to it by the sacrifice; and affixing His seal 
through the Shekinah. Abram's mere implied 
acceptance completed the transfer; the whole 
transaction being symbolical of the terms of the 
coming Covenant: Salvation by Grace through 
Faith. 

Note the Record : 

Genesis xv. After these things the 
word of the Lord came to Abram in a 
vision, saying, Fear not, Abram; I am 
thy shield, and thy exceeding great re- 
ward. 

And Abram said, Behold, to me thou 
hast given no seed. And the word of 
the Lord came unto him saying, He that 
shall come forth out of thine own 
bowels shall be thine heir. And He 
brought him forth abroad, and said, 
Look now toward heaven, and tell the 
stars, if thou be able to number them; 
and He said unto him, So shall thy 
seed be. 

AND HE BELIEVED IN THE 
LORD; AND HE COUNTED IT 
justification TO HIM FOR RIGHT, 
by faith. EOUSNESS. 

And He said unto him, I am the Lord 
that brought thee out of Ur of the 



and the Mystery of the Jew ii 

Chaldees, to give to thee this land to 
inherit it. 

And he said, Lord GOD, whereby 
shall I know that I shall inherit it? 

And He said unto him, Take me an 
heifer of three years old, and a she goat 
of three years old, and a ram of three 
years old, and a turtle dove, and a 
young pigeon. And he took him all 
these and divided them in the midst, 
and laid each piece one against another ; 
but the birds divided he not. 

And when the fowls came down upon 
the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 
And when the sun was going down, 
a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, 
an horror of great darkness fell upon 
him. 

And He said unto Abram, Know of a 
surety that thy seed shall be a stranger 
in a land that is not theirs, and shall 
serve them; and they shall afflict them 
four hundred years; and afterward 
shall they come out with great sub- 
stance. But in the fourth generation 
they shall come hither again: for the 
iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. 

And it came to pass, that, when the 
sun went down, and it was dark, behold 
A SMOKING FURNACE AND A 
BURNING LAMP that passed be- 
tween those pieces. 

In the same day the Lord made a 



12 The Story of the Covenant 

The covenant with Abram, say- 

Shekinah. ing, Unto thy seed have I 
given this land, from the river of 
Egypt unto the great river, the river 
Euphrates. 



and the Mystery of the Jew 13 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE COVENANT. 

Fifteen years pass by. Ripened by faith and 
by experience, Abram is now to enter into full 
covenant relations with Jehovah, for himself and 
for his posterity, temporal and spiritual. The 
establishment of the Church in the family of 
Abram, for all time, was an event of tremendous 
import; one of transcending importance in the 
history of the Redemption of God's elect. It 
was to be permanent and for all time. Through 
it, in all the coming ages, God's people were 
to be gathered into His kingdom. Truly, in 
considering this great transaction, we are on 
holy ground. The plan of Redemp- Iraport of 
tion, devised in Divine council before TheCovenan 
the world was, received a partial elaboration 
here; and for two thousand years it was to so 
remain, in the half-light, until the rising of the 
Sun of Righteousness should reveal the fullness 
of the love of God for fallen humanity, in the 
establishing of the Covenant. 

Abram was ninety-nine years old when 



14 The Story of the Covenant 

Jehovah appeared to him. saying, "I am the 
All-mighty God," and entered into the full terms 
of the Covenant with him. 

the covenant: the magna charta 
of the church. 

Genesis xvii — 2. And I will make 
The my covenant between me 

Covenant. anc j thee, and will multiply 
thee exceedingly. 

3. And Abram fell on his face; and 
God talked with him, saying, 

4. As for me, behold, my convenant 
is with thee, and thou shalt be a father 
of many nations. 

5. Neither shall thy name any more 
be called Abram; but thy name shall 
be Abraham; for a father of many na- 
tions have I made thee. 

6. And. I will make thee exceedingly 
fruitful, and I will make nations of 
thee; and kings shall come out of thee. 

7. And I will establish my covenant 
between me and thee, and thy seed after 
thee, in their generations, for an ever- 
lasting covenant; to be a God unto thee 
and to thy seed after thee. 

9. And God said unto Abraham, 
Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, 
thou, and thy seed after thee, in their 
generations. 

10. This is my covenant, which ye 
shall keep, between me and you, and 



and the Mystery of the Jew 15 

thy seed after thee; Every man-child 
among you shall be circumcised. 

11. And ye shall circumcise the flesh 
of your foreskin; and it shall be a 
token of the covenant betwixt me and 
you. 

12. And he that is eight days old 
shall be circumcised among you, every 
man-child in your generation, he that 
is born in the house, or bought with 
money of any stranger, which is not of 
thy seed. 

13. He that is born in thy house, and 
he that is bought with thy money, must 
needs be circumcised; and my covenant 
shall be in your flesh for an everlasting 
covenant. 

19. And God said, Sarah thy wife 
shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou 
shalt call his name Isaac; and I will 
establish my covenant with him for an 
everlasting covenant, and with his seed 
after him. 

ACCEPTED AND RATIFIED BY ABRAHAM. 

Genesis xvii — 23. And Abraham 
took Ishmael his son, and all Ratification of 
that were born in his house, The Covenant. 
and all that were bought with his 
money, every male among the men of 
Abraham's house; and circumcised the 
flesh of their foreskin, in the self -same 
day, as God had said unto him. 



1 6 The Story of the Covenant 

24. And Abraham was ninety years 
old and nine, when he was circumcised 
in the flesh of his foreskin. 

25. And Ishmael his son was thir- 
teen years old, when he was circum- 
cised in the flesh of his foreskin. 

26. In the self -same day was Abra- 
ham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. 

2J. And all the men of his house, 
born in the house, and bought with 
money of the stranger, were circum- 
cised with him. 

penalty for violation. 

But a covenant is a contract, and all contracts 
have a penalty for non-observance of the condi- 
tions. There is no exception to the rule in this 
case. The awful language of the Scriptures in 
Genesis xvii — 14, is as follows : 

And the uncircumcised man-child, 

Penalty for non- wnose A esn of his foreskin 

observance. } s no t circumcised, that soul 

shall be cut off from his people ; he hath 

broken my covenant. 

Was this of light moment? Three hundred 

and fifty years afterwards, Moses, the coming 

great law-giver of Israel, took to wife Zipporah, 

the daughter of Jethro, prince of Midian; of 

heathen family, outside the benefits of the 

Moses and Covenant. He had failed, evidently 

Zipporah. on account of the objections of his 



and the Mystery of the Jew iy 

wife Zipporah, to apply the seal to his son 
Gershom. This, in the coming leader of His 
people: besides depriving his son of his coven- 
ant rights, was intolerable to the Lord; and on 
his journey from Midian to Egypt, in obedience 
to the order of the Lord, to deliver His message 
to Pharaoh, the Record relates : 

Exodus iv — 24. And it came to pass 
by the way in the inn, that the Lord 
met him, and sought to kill him. 

25. Then Zipporah took a sharp 
stone and cut off the foreskin of her 
son, and cast it at her feet, and said, 
surely a bloody husband art thou to me. 

26. So He let him go ; then she said, 
A bloody husband thou art, because of 
the circumcision. 



1 8 The Story of the Covenant 



CHAPTER V. 

THE COVENANT WAS A 
CHURCH (ECCLESIASTICAL) 
COVENANT AND NOT A MERE 
FAMILY, OR NATIONAL COVE- 
NANT. 
The establishment, the ratification, and the 

Covenant of a P enalt y for non-observance of the 
religious nature terms of the Covenant being thus 
clearly elaborated by the Scriptures, it is per- 
tinent to inquire into its scope, and as to its 
beneficiaries. It is held by some who have read 
the Scriptures on this subject only superficially, 
or from preconceived ideas, that the Covenant 
was a transaction which pertained to the He- 
brew race only as a nation. On the contrary, 
nothing can be clearer in this regard, than the 
enunciation of Scripture, both in the Old Testa- 
ment and in the New. The following facts from 
the text of the Record, are clear: 

(i) All of Abraham's natural descendants 
c . „. were not included in the Covenant. 

Scope of The 

Covenant. ( 2 ) Others than Abraham's nat- 

ural descendants were included, from the be- 
ginning. 



and the Mystery of the Jew 19 

(3) One of the chief objects of the Covenant, 
if not the most imporant, was that the blessing 
promised to Abraham, and his seed, should be 
extended to ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE 
EARTH. 

The nature and scope of the Covenant being 
established from the Scriptures, the deduction 
is clear that the beneficiaries were those who ac- 
cepted the terms, of whatever race; all those 
who entered into this ecclesiastical relation with 
Jehovah; whose faith, like that of Abraham, 
was counted to them for righteousness ; and 
who thus came within the pale of the Jewish 
Church. These received the Covenant seal, these 
believers; and by the terms of the Covenant 
were obligated to apply the same seal to their 
children, under the penalty prescribed for dis- 
obedience, previously noted. 

That this relation has continued since the be- 
ginning through all the ages of the Church, 
and that it now exists; that the form of the seal, 
at the proper time, and for reasons consonant 
and in harmony with other great modifications 
in the Church, was changed from circumcision 
to that of baptism; that both have the same 
significance; all this, is the purpose of this dis- 
cussion to demonstrate. 



2o The Story of the Covenant 



CHAPTER VI. 

CIRCUMCISION A SPIRITUAL, NOT A NATIONAL 
RITE. 

The frequent misconception noted above, as 
n . to the terms of the scope of 

Circumcision a r 

spiritual rite, the Covenant; based largely upon 
a superficial knowledge of the Scriptures, 
exists also as to the SEAL of the 
Covenant. It is held by many that it applied 
entirely to the Hebrew race, and that it 
was a national rite. The Scriptures state 
emphatically otherwise. It is reasonable to 
expect that, pertaining, as it does, to a compact 
of a spiritual nature, the seal should have a 
symbolical significance of a spiritual character; 
and such is the case, abundantly stated and em- 
phasized. 

Primarily, the significance of circumcision is 
same as Bap- Precisely the same as that of 
tism. baptism; the type of the opera- 

tion of the Holy Spirit on the heart. The 
"sprinkling from an evil conscience" (Heb. 
x — 22) ; and the "washing of regeneration" 



and the Mystery of the Jew 21 

(Titus iii — 5) are heart-purifying processes; the 
same as circumcision was to "circumcise thine 
heart" (Deut. xxx — 6). The substitution of 
baptism was because of the passing of the blood 
era, as will be noted further on in this treatise; 
and the type of cleansing by water was sub- 
stituted; both, as noted above, typifying the 
work of the Holy Spirit, under whose admin- 
istration the Church of God now exists and 
operates. 

Deuter. x — 16. Circumcise therefore, 
the foreskin of your heart, and be no 
more stiff-necked. 

xxx — 6. And the Lord thy God will 
circumcise thine heart, and the heart of 
thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with 
all thine heart, and with all thy soul, 
that thou mayst live. 

Jeremiah iv — 4. Circumcise your- 
selves to the Lord, and take away the 
foreskins of your heart, ye men of 
Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; 
lest my fury come like fire, and burn 
that none can quench it, because of the 
evil of your doings. 

Romans ii — 28. For he is not a Jew 
which is one outwardly; neither is that 
circumcision, which is outward in the 
flesh. 

29. But he is a Jew which is one in- 
wardly; and circumcision is that of the 
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter ; 



22 The Story of the Covenant 

whose praise is not of men, but of God. 

Colossians ii — II. In whom also ye 
are circumcised with the circumcision 
made without hands, in putting off the 
body of the sins of the flesh by the cir- 
cumcision of Christ. 

12. Buried with him in baptism, 
wherein also ye are risen with him 
through faith of the operation of God, 
who hath raised him from the dead. 



and the Mystery of the Jew 23 



THE SOJOURNINGS, UP TO THE GIVING OF 
THE LAW. 

Exodus xii — 40. The sojourning of 
the children and of their T h e 
fathers which they so- sojourning. 
journed in the land of Canaan, and in 
the land of Egypt, was four hundred 
and thirty years. (Septuagint). 

41. And it came to pass, at the end 
of four hundred and thirty years, 
even the self -same day it came to pass, 
that all the hosts of the Lord went out 
from the land of Egypt.* 

* There are two theories regarding the length of the 
sojourn of the Hebrews in Egypt, either of which are 
in consonance with the integrity of the Record : 

(1) That it was 430 years; based on Gen. xv. 13, 
and Exodus xii. 40, A. V. This theory requires that 
the period "four hundred and thirty years" of Ex. 
xii. 40 and 41, and Galatians iii. 17, date from the 
last appearance of Jehovah to Jacob, at Beersheba 
(Gen. xlvi. 2) while en route on his final journey to 
Egypt. 

(2) That the 430 years of Ex. xii. 40 and 41, and 
Gal. iii. 17, date from the entrance of Abram into 
Canaan (Ussher, 1921, B. C.) This theory requires 
that the 400 years of "affliction" period (Gen. xv. 13) 
begin with the mocking of Isaac by Ishmael, Hagar's 
son (Gen. xxi. 9). It also requires the LXX. version 



24 The Story of the Covenant 

42. It is a night to be much observed 
unto the Lord for bringing them out of 
the land of Egypt; this is that night 
of the Lord to be observed of all the 
children of Israel in all their genera- 
tions. 

51. And it came to pass the self- 
same day, that the Lord did bring the 
children of Israel out of the land of 

Egypt by their armies. 

****** 



ABRAHAM AND MOSES. 

It is well to note, in connection with this ex- 
position, the relative position of 
Moses. Abraham and Moses in the New 

of Ex. xii. 40 (see above) instead of the Authorized 
Version. 

This makes the period of residence in Egypt 215 
years; a comparatively short time in which to ac- 
count for the enormous increase of the Hebrews; 
and for the overwhelming numbers which left Egypt 
for Canaan at the Exodus ; unless we consider the 
cumulative expressions in Exodus i. 7, which indicate 
miraculous increase; to say nothing of the known fe- 
cundity of females in Egypt at that period: two, 
three, and sometimes even four children being pro- 
duced at a birth. It is also to be borne in mind 
that while only seventy souls, from the loins of Jacob, 
went from Canaan to Egypt, the actual emigration 
was really a very large one; some estimating it as 
high as 3,000. 

This theory is further supported by the genealogy 
of Moses (Ex. vi. 16) which designates his being 
only the third in descent from Levi. 

For ourselves, we adopt the latter theory of the 
period of the sojourn. 



and the Mystery of the Jew 25 

Testament, as understood by the Jews. Their 
names are mentioned something over fifty times 
each; the former nearly always as party to the 
Covenant, or Father of the Faithful; while the 
latter sustains the relation of the great Law- 
Giver : for instance, representing the Law at the 
Mount of Transfiguration. 



26 The Story of the Covenant 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE COVENANT IS THE GREAT CHARTER OF THE 
CHURCH UNDER THE NEW DISPENSATION, 
AS WELL AS UNDER THE OLD. 

The centuries roll by. All down through the 
Jewish Church, with more or less faithfulness, 
the Covenant has been kept. In the fullness of 
time the Theocracy passes away. The Savior, 
the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, has come; has 
received the seal of the Covenant 

Covenant the , , T , , , TT . 

charter of the made between Jehovah and His 
newdispen- father Abraham; and, "to fulfill all 
righteousness" has also received the 
seal of baptism and has rendered up His life 
as the great atonement for sin. The Passover 
and the sacrifices have been fulfilled on the 
Cross, and, with the Jewish priesthood, are abol- 
ished; for the last blood was shed when the 
soldier, finding the Savior "already dead," 

Shedding of the P ierCed his side with a S P ear '> aild 

last blood. "forthwith came there out blood and 
water" (John xix — 34) ; blood to typify the Old 
Dispensation, and water, the New. 



and the Mystery of the Jew 2.J 

Too much importance cannot be attached to 
this point of time in the history of n , .. 

r J Change of form 

Redemption. The inspired writer, of seal - 
John, is particular to emphasize it; that he saw 
the occurrence, and that his record is true. The 
form of the seal of the Covenant is changed, 
but the significance remains the same. The blood 
era is gone ; some other type must be substituted 
to indicate the cleansing power of the Holy 
Spirit. For the sprinkling of blood is substi- 
tuted the sprinkling of water. 

THEREFORE, baptism has been substituted 
for circumcision, and "there is 

. , T r- i ^1 • Baptism in- 

neither Jew nor Greek, there is stead of 
neither bond nor free, there is neither 
male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ 
Jesus" (Gal. iii — 28). The administration of 
the Holy Spirit, under which we now live; and 
which will continue till time shall end, is about 
to open. 

It is hard for us to appreciate the situation 
as it existed at that time. Only the instructions 
of the Savior to the apostles, and the presence 
of the Spirit, could have guided them in this 
revolution of things pertaining to the Church; 
the end of the Old, and the beginning of the 
New Dispensation. 

Change, everywhere, and in everything. The 



28 The Story of the Covenant 

elaborate ritual of the Jewish Church swept 
away, to be replaced by the simplicity of the 
new order of things. 

In the cataclysm, what has become of the 
Covenant? Is it annulled? Or moribund? Or 
forgotten ? 

Pentecost comes. The mighty power of the 
Holy Spirit moves the multitude, and 

Pentecost. , TT . . n _. 

under His influence Peter rises to 
speak; the first utterance under the New Dis- 
pensation. Of what mighty import are his com- 
ing words ! For they are the initial declaration ; 
the keynote of all future preaching. And in that 
sermon comes, clear and strong the utterance, 
"For the promise, ye men of Israel, is unto you 
and to your children" (Acts ii — 39). No need 
for any explanation of what that meant, to a 
Jew. Under the new order of things, his chil- 
dren were to be with him in the Church, as they 
had been for two thousand years. The Coven- 
ant an * w ^ Abraham still held good; 
re-asserted. anc j jf anv lingering doubts yet re- 
mained in their longing hearts, they were swept 
away when Peter, in the very temple itself, 
assured them that "the God of Abraham and 
of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, 
hath glorified His son Jesus" (Acts iii — 13); 
and that "Ye are the children of the prophets, 
and of the Covenant which God made with our 



and the Mystery of the Jew 29 

fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed 
shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed'' 
(Acts iii — 25). 

* * * * * * 

Nearly three thousand years had passed away 
since Noah uttered his prophecy: AND GOD 
SHALL ENLARGE JAPHETH, AND HE 
SHALL DWELL IN THE TENTS OF 
SHEM. The sons of Shem, the repository of 
the Church of God on earth for twenty centuries, 
and unto whom had been committed the oracles 
of God, had rejected the Messiah and had cruci- 
fied the Lord of Glory. The tents Prophecy 
of Shem are now deserted, vacated, of Noah - 
empty, and new occupants are to be found. 
The mighty purposes of Almighty God, or- 
dained from all eternity, are to be carried out. 
His Church is to be placed in new hands, and 
the fulfillment of the promise to TentsofShem 
Abraham: that "in thee shall all the vacated, 
families of the earth be blessed" is about to 
begin, through the like fulfillment of the 
prophecy of Noah. 

But where were the sons of Japheth? Scat- 
tered all over Europe. Rome had Sonsof 
been founded eight hundred years be- Japheth. 
fore, and Greece fifteen hundred years or more, 



30 The Story of the Covenant 

by the descendants of Gomer and Javan, sons 
of Japheth. Three hundred years before the 
days of the Savior, a colony of the sons of 
Gomer had forced itself eastward from Gaul, 
and the province of Galatia in Asia 

Galatians. MinQr wag the result But on t h e 

continent of Europe, and the British Isles, for 
twenty or thirty centuries or more, the teeming 
millions had lived in heathenism and barbarism, 
far beyond the reach of the historian or the ex- 
plorer. These are now to be made the repository 
of the Church of God; the Gentile is now to be 
sought out to be placed in the tents of Shem. 
How T is it to be done? 



and the Mystery of the Jew 31 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONVERSION AND WORK OF THE APOSTLE PAUL. 

The decrees of God are fixed, and His pur- 
poses will be carried out. He had a way, and 
it was on this wise: 

On a certain day, an event of greater import to 
the human race than any which has ever since 
occurred, took place a few miles from Damascus 
in Syria. A man, with a small company, was 
nearing the city. His name was but little heard of 
outside of Jerusalem; but since then, it is better 
known than those of all the Roman emperors 
or Grecian philosophers; than all the statesmen 
or kings of subsequent days. This man was a 
son of Shem; a Pharisee of the Pharisees; 
trained and educated in all the lore of his day. 
He was filled with untoward zeal in persecuting 
the scattered disciples of the crucified Lord; and, 
armed with due authority from the high priest at 
Jerusalem; breathing out threatenings and 
slaughter; fresh from the martyrdom scene of 



32 The Story of the Covenant 

the sainted Stephen, was hot after the few poor 
frightened disciples at Damascus. 

But he little surmised what was in store for 
him. His brilliant intellect and un- 

Conversion ... , ... , . 

of Saul of tiring zeal were to be diverted into 
a new channel. As he neared Damas- 
cus, he was arrested in his career by the hand 
of the Lord. In his great oration before King 
Agrippa, twenty-seven years afterwards, Paul 
narrates, in language of burning eloquence, his 
experience on that fateful day: 

Acts xxvi — 12. Whereupon, as I 
went to Damascus, with authority and 
commission from the chief priests, at 
mid-day, O king, I saw in the way a 
light from heaven, above the brightness 
of the sun, shining round about me, and 
them which journeyed with me. And 
when we were all fallen to the earth, 
I heard a voice speaking to me, and 
saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is 
hard for thee to kick against the 
pricks. And I said, Who art thou, 
Lord? And He said, I am Jesus whom 
thou persecutest. 

But rise, and stand upon thy feet ; for 
I have appeared unto thee for this pur- 
pose, to make thee a minister and a wit- 
ness both of these things which thou 
hast seen, and of those things in the 
which I will appear unto thee; deliver- 



and the Mystery of the Jew 33 

ing thee from the people, Commissfon 
and from the GENTILES, of the Apostle 
UNTO WHOM I NOW PauL 
SEND THEE; TO OPEN THEIR 
EYES, and to turn them from darkness 
to light, and from the power of Satan 
unto God, that they may receive for- 
giveness of sins, and INHERITANCE 
AMONG THEM WHICH ARE 
SANCTIFIED BY FAITH THAT 
IS IN ME. 

Crushed, broken and blind, he is taken by the 
hand and led into Damascus ; in his collapse 
three days without food, or drink or sight ; when 
the Lord sent the disciple Ananias to him with 
the cheering message (Acts ix — 17) "Brother 
Saul, the Lord hath sent me that thou mightest 
receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy 
Ghost"; when he arose, his sight was restored, 
and he received the seal of the Covenant in 
baptism, at the hands of Ananias. 

Then the Lord took him to the wilds of 
Arabia; to the solitudes of Sinai. To Sinai, that 
sacred spot; the training-place of the prophets 
and the people of Jehovah; where, fifteen hun- 
dred years before He had appeared to Moses in 
the burning bush: the Holy Ground, when He 
gave him the commission to appear 
before Pharaoh and to lead his people 
from Egypt to Canaan ; and where, placing His 



34 The Story of the Covenant 

servant, the great Law-Giver, in the clift in the 
rock, Jehovah descended and stood with Moses 
there; permitting human vision to see, in part, 
His personal glory; and where the Law was 
given, which was to govern His people for 
fifteen hundred years. 

And where, nine hundred years before, the 
affrighted Elijah, fleeing the vicious, vengeful 
Jezebel, after the great day on Carmel, in dis- 
couragement and distress, was called from his 
hidden lodgment in the cave by the voice of the 
Lord: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" and 
received his orders to "Go !" and re-establish the 
supremacy of the broken Law in Israel. 

So now the coming apostle to the Gentiles, 
in the same place, received his training and his 
instructions to preach that the day of the old 
Law was passed ; that Christ, who had come and 
made the great Sacrifice and Atonement for sin, 
was the end of the Law; that the Covenant with 
Abraham, and no longer the Law, was to obtain, 
in His dealings with His Church. 

There, alone with the Lord, he received the 
training for his future life work, in doctrines 
and ordinances, as he narrates in his own lan- 
guage (I Cor. ii — 23) : "For I have received 
of the Lord that which I delivered unto you," 
and 



and the Mystery of the Jew 35 

Galatians i — 17. Neither went I up 
to Jerusalem to them which were apos- 
tles before me; but I went into Arabia, 
and returned again to Damascus. Then, 
after three years I went up to Jerusa- 
lem to see Peter, and abode with him 
fifteen days. But other of the apostles 
saw I none, save James, the Lord's 
brother ; 
for this man, to be properly equipped for his 
work, must be fully purged of his preconceived 
notions and opinions of the precedence of the 
Jew in religious matters; he must not even be 
possessed of the inherited tendency in that di- 
rection which beset the great apostle Peter, spite 
of the vision sent to remove it. He must be 
thoroughly imbued with the fact that the day 
of the sons of JAPHETH had come; and that 
he was the chosen instrument of the Lord to 
set in motion the forces which would accomplish 
that end. 

Returning from Arabia and Damascus, he 
enters Jerusalem; and during his 
short stay there ; lest he imbibe undue work of 

»«..., \ . • .1 Paul. 

Judaistic ideas, his intercourse with 
the apostles was limited. Then his great life 
work began. Of his great missionary journeys 
among the Gentiles, there is no need to enter 
into detail. They are without parallel. Frail of 
body, weak of vision from the effects of the 



36 The Story of the Covenant 

brightness of the light, that memorable day near 
Damascus; beset by enemies, beleaguered by 
those who should have been his friends, this man, 
driven by the Spirit, labored incessantly, under 
difficulties insurmountable, unless he had been 
sustained by divine power. Hear him tell of it: 
II Cor. ii — 23. "In stripes above 
Experiences measure, in prisons more 
of Paul. frequent, in deaths oft. Of 

the Jews five times received I forty 
stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten 
with rods, once was I stoned, thrice 
I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day 
have I been in the deep ; in journeyings 
often, in perils of waters, in perils of 
robbers, in perils by mine own country- 
men, in perils by the heathen, in perils 
in the city, in perils in the wilderness, 
in perils in the sea, in perils among 
false brethren ; in weariness and pain- 
fulness, in watchings often, in hunger 
and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and 
nakedness. Besides those things that 
are without, that which cometh upon 
me daily, the care of all the churches." 
And, in time, a chained prisoner in Rome, he 
Paul at indites the wonderful epistles, which 

Rome. were to be, for all the coming ages, 

expositions of the truth and of the gospel, for 
the Church; and finally, when the "time of his 
departure is at hand," Paul, the apostle to the 
sons of JAPHETH, triumphantly exclaims; 



and the Mystery of the Jew 37 

II Tim. iv — 6. For I am now ready 
to be offered; I have fought a good 
fight, I have finished my course, I have 
kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid 
up for me a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
shall give me at that day, 
and he is led outside the walls of M , , 

Martyrdom 

Rome, and lays down his life; his o fp aui. 
final tribute of love and faithfulness to his 
Master. 



38 The Story of the Covenant 



CHAPTER IX. 

AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE INSPIRED RECORD. 

But though dead, Paul yet spoke. The Lord 
kept him on earth till the mighty movement 
among the sons of Japheth was inaugurated by 
him, and under way, and then took him to 
Himself. Here inspired history ceases; and 
Growth of ecclesiastical and international his- 
church. tory takes up the wonderful story. 

Of the early Church in persecutions and martyr- 
doms; of the Church fathers in their codifying 
and establishing the Truth; Polycarp, Origen, 
Irenaeus, Athanasius, and others. How, in in- 
creasing momentum, the Church grew and 
spread; till in three hundred years the Roman 
Empire was as a state, Christian un- 
der Constantine. Then Augustine 
came; the greatest since Paul, to give a powerful 
addition to the momentum of the on- 
ward progress of the Church. But 
licentious and enervated Rome had more than 
passed the zenith of her glory; and in the year 



and the Mystery of the Jew 39 

410, under God, Alaric the Goth, with his myr- 
iads of Goths, the barbarian sons 

r-riiiirti- 1 1 ■ e Rome sacked. 

01 Japheth, half-clad in the skins of 
wild beasts, unkempt and unshorn, captured and 
sacked the Eternal City. So it is related in pro- 
fane history; but in the history of Redemption 
it reads that they came in contact with Christian- 
ity, these wild men, and became an opening 
wedge for the subsequent entrance of the Cove- 
nant, into their wild domains, at home. 

Then, alas! came the corruptions of the 
Church, the fully developing rise of Riseofthe 
the Papacy, and the beginning of the Papacy- 
Dark Ages of the Church and civilization. But 
back in those dark days, the Lord preserved His 
remnant among the sons of Japheth. Like a 
dim light, back in the darkness, shine the Albi- 
genses in France, and the Waldenses in Switzer- 
land; and in the cells of the corrupt monasteries, 
a few godly monks, who, with access only to 
chained Bibles, saw and obeyed the Truth. 

And in the fulness of time the day begins to 
break again, when John Wyclifte, Reformation 
the Morning Star of the Re forma- begins. 
tion, arose. Savonarola in Florence and John 
Huss in Bohemia testified publicly to the Truth 
with their lives. More evidences of the coming 
day were apparent, and in the year 1492, two 



40 The Story of the Covenant 

events occurred, linked together in God's provi- 
dence, which were to transform the history of 
human destiny; THE BIRTH OF 
Luthen MARTIN LUTHER, AND THE 

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA; THE FU- 
TURE HOME OF THE SONS OF 
JAPHETH. 

Quickly events ripened; the great Reforma- 
tion began with the nailing of the theses on the 
door of the church in Wittenberg by Martin 
Luther. Leaders multiplied; Zwingle, Melanc- 
thon, Beza; but greatest of all, that mighty son 
of Japheth, 

JOHN CALVIN. 

He it was who was to give system, vigor and 
success to the doubtful issue of the 
Reformation; who was raised up, 
under God, to interpret and formulate the sys- 
tem of theology, as needed at the time; whose 
doctrines, deduced from the Scriptures, gave the 
momentum to the movement which wrested the 
chains of Romish ecclesiastical despotism from 
mankind. These doctrines were behind John 
Knox, his pupil, in his liberation of 
Scotland; Cromwell, in his great 
successful struggle with the corrupt Stuart 
dynasty in England; William of Orange, at Ley- 



and the Mystery of the Jew 41 

den, and William the grandson, when, at the 
battle of the Boyne, the last vestige of the power 
of the Papacy was forever broken in England. 

They were behind the Pilgrims; English, 
Dutch, Scotch-Irish and Huguenot, 
when the sails of their ships dotted 
the Atlantic in the seventeenth century; bound 
for America to found the coming Republic of 
God-fearing sons of Japheth; for truly Ban- 
croft declares that John Calvin was the founder 
of American Independence. 

AND GOD SHALL ENLARGE JAPHETH, 
AND HE SHALL DWELL IN THE TENTS 
OF SHEM. 

* JJS JJJ jji jj« * 

And what were these doctrines? What force 
was the basic principle which underlay such 
tremendous results? 

The powerful son of Japheth had simply re- 
produced, in their purity, the doctrines of the 
apostle Paul, the great son of Shem, uttered by 
inspiration fifteen centuries before: The abso- 
lute Sovereignty of God: Salvation through 
grace; and Justification by Faith, through the 
operation of the Abrahamic Covenant. 



42 The Story of the Covenant 



CHAPTER X. 

THE COVENANT IN THE EPISTLES. 

In entering further into the investigation of 
the subject under discussion, it is well to bear in 
mind a simple principle; too simple, almost, to 
mention; and yet which bears strongly upon 
what is to follow. It is, that our communications 
and conversations with those about us are shaped 
and ordered according to the degree of intelli- 
gence and information of our associates. It is, 
for instance, unnecessary, in speaking of that 
instrument, to specify to a well informed Ameri- 
can what is meant when the Declaration of In- 
dependence is mentioned; while a citizen of a 
foreign country would likely call for an ex- 
planation of the term. To formulate and direct 
one's conversation, in this regard, is an art in it- 
self ; and in the principle is comprised that rarest 
of all accomplishments, the faculties of a good 
conversationalist, or successful speaker or ora- 
tor; knowing what to say, and how to say it, 
to those whose opportunities and capacities de- 
mand just a certain kind and amount of elabora- 



and the Mystery of the Jew 43 

tk>n along the lines to be treated by the speaker. 
In this regard, the apostle Paul is probably 
without a peer. Whether addressing Versatilit o{ 
royalty, as in his oration before King Apostle Paul. 
Agrippa, in the presence of the queen, officers 
of the Roman army, Festus the governor, and 
the principal men of the city of Cesarea; a great 
audience and a great occasion, during which the 
speaker rose to such heights of eloquence that 
Festus was moved to cry out: "Paul, thou art 
beside thyself; much learning hath made thee 
mad!" or whether, a stranger in the midst of a 
brilliant pagan civilization, in the presence of 
Greek philosophy and cultivation at Athens, on 
Mars' Hill; when in the most adept, consummate 
manner; in an address which groups existing 
conditions with the hand of the polished master, 
he skillfully directs them toward his superb 
climax; he always leads his auditors to his one 
great theme, the gospel of his Lord and Savior 
Jesus Christ. 

Along the same lines we recall that the apostle 
Peter, in his terse, tense sermon at Pentecost, 
preaching to "Ye men of Israel," merely pre- 
faced his statement as to the "promise is unto 
you and to your children," with the word "for," 
or "because." There was no need to enter into 
explanation, any more than would be necessary 



44 The Story of the Covenant 

to explain to an educated American the meaning 
of the term Declaration of Independence. They 
knew what it meant; the Covenant with Abra- 
ham; embodied in the compliance with which 
were the conditional promises, so much prized 
and relied upon by the religious Jew. 

The same principle applies when Paul bears 
his message to the Gentiles, the sons of Japheth. 
Before they can dwell in the "tents of Shem"; 
before they can accept, they must know the 
Truth. Consider well the gravity of this propo- 
sition. Men and nations who knew absolutely 
nothing of the story of the Evangel; to whom 
the prophets were unknown ; to whom the Savior, 
if they had ever heard of Him at all, was only 
a disgracefully executed malefactor; these were 
sons of jap- to be tau g ht the mysteries of the 
ta e ughT. ust ^ Kingdom of God from the begin- 
ning; of Adam and the fall ; of Noah, 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; of the Jewish law 
and ritual; of David and the prophets, and the 
prophecies and their fulfillment on the Cross, 
and of the Resurrection. And when we consider 
that this must be told not just once, but in every 
city (for Paul sought the centers of population), 
and in every country included in his journeys; 
incessantly ; for, for thirty years, it was the bur- 
den of his work, we get a faint conception of the 
stupendous work of the apostle to the Gentiles. 



and the Mystery of the Jew 45 

And in his preaching to the sons of Japheth, 
Paul drew heavily on the Old Testament. This 
expression is used in the absence of a better one. 
Make it stronger by saying he made the Scrip- 
tures of the Old Testament the basis of his teach- 
ings. It could not be otherwise. To Timothy 
(II. Tim. iii.— 16, 17) he declares that "Every 
Scripture that is inspired of God is also profitable 
for teaching, for reproof., for correction, for 
instruction which is in righteousness"; having 
in mind only the Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
ment ; for there were no others at that time. 

What a commentary this is upon the disposi- 
tion, this present day, of some in cer- TheOidTes- 
tain quarters, who, professing to be st^Tn teach* 
the better informed in a new way, mg ' 
than some other people, minimize, or indeed dis- 
card the Old Testament entirely ! 

Make an experiment for yourself. Tear out 
the Old Testament; consign it, and the memory 
of its contents, to oblivion; then open the New 
Testament; anywhere and at random; at the 
Book of Acts or any of the epistles, and see 
how far you will read before you encounter 
passages which are meaningless in the absence 
of the Old Testament. The very vertebrae of 
the gospel record will be gone. 

****** 



46 The Story of the Covenant 

In this discussion of God's Covenant with 
Abraham, the foregoing should be borne in 
mind. By no means will all the references to 
Abraham by Paul be given in this treatise; only 
enough to elaborate the fact that it was a vital, 
active principle in the preaching of the apostle. 
In his massive, logical epistle to the Romans, 
having in mind that they were the untutored 
sons of Japheth, he argues in detail, the exist- 
ence of the Covenant explicitly stated, as fol- 
lows: 

Romans iv. — I. What shall we say 
The Covenant then that Abraham, our 
in Romans. father, as pertains to the 
flesh, hath found? 
2. For if Abraham were justified 
by works, he hath whereof to glory, 
but not before God. 

ii. And he received the sign of cir- 
cumcision, the seal of the righteous- 
ness of faith which he had yet being 
uncircumcised ; that he might be the 
father of all them that believe, though 
they be not circumcised, that righteous- 
ness might be imputed to them also ; 

12. And the father of circumcision 
to them who are not of the circumcision 
only, but who also walk in the steps of 
that faith of our father Abraham, 
which he had, being yet uncircum- 
cised. 

13. For the promise that he should 



and the Mystery of the Jew 47 

be the heir of the world, was not to 
Abraham, or to his seed, through the 
law, but through the righteousness of 
faith. 

16. Therefore it is of faith, that it 
might be by grace; to the end the 
promise might be sure to all the seed; 
not to that only which is of the law, but 
to that also which is of the faith of 
Abraham, who is the father of us all. 

17. (As it is written, I have made 
thee a father of many nations) before 
him whom he believed, even God, who 
quickeneth the dead, and calleth those 
things which be not, as though they 
were. 

18. Who against hope believed in 
hope, that he might become the father 
of many nations; according to that 
which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 

Two years before, he had written his letter to 
the Galatians— a fickle, changeable, TheCovenant 
emotional people; possessing charac- in Galatians. 
teristics which distinguish the Celtic races to- 
day, so prone to ritualism. The Judaizer had 
been at work in Galatia ; that insidious enemy of 
the gospel, the bane of Paul's life in his great 
work among the Gentiles. "Oh, foolish Gala- 
tians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should 
not obey the Truth?" and then he proceeds, in 
an argument as elaborate and convincing as any 
ever made by an advocate at the bar of any 



48 The Story of the Covenant 

court, to declare, not only the existence and 
operation of the Covenant between God and 
Abraham, but its priority to the Law, given by 
Moses at Sinai; and since "Christ was the end 
of the law" (Rom. x. — 4) and the Covenant is 
everlasting, it is evident that his argument is, 
that the Law is held subservient and subordinate 
to the terms of the Covenant. The following 
are his own words, simple and unanswerable, 
found in 

Galatians iii. — 6. Even as Abraham 

believed God, and it was accounted to 

him for righteousness. 

7. Know ye, therefore, that they 
which are of faith, the same are the 
children of Abraham. 

8. And the Scripture, foreseeing that 
God would justify the heathen through 
faith, preached before the gospel unto 
Abraham, saying, in thee shall all the 
nations of the earth be blessed. 

9. So then they which be of faith, 
are blessed with faithful Abraham. 

14. That the blessing of Abraham 
might come on the Gentiles through 
Jesus Christ ; that we might receive the 
promise of the Spirit through faith. 

15. Brethren, I speak after the man- 
ner of men: Though it be but a man's 
covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man 
disannulleth or addeth thereto. 

16. Now to Abraham and his seed 



and the Mystery of the Jew *j 

were the promises made. He saith not, 
And to seeds, as of many; but as of 
one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 

17. And this I say, That the Cove- 
nant, that was confirmed before of God 
in Christ, the law, which was four hun- 
dred and thirty years after, cannot dis- 
annual, that it should make the promise 
of none effect. 

18. For if the inheritance be of the 
law, it is no more of promise; but God 
gave it to Abraham by promise. 

27. For as many of you as have been 
baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. 

28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, 
there is neither bond nor free, there is 
neither male nor female; for ye are all 
one in Christ Jesus. 

29. And if ye be Christ's, then are 
ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according 
to the promise. 



50 The Story of the Covenant 



CHAPTER XL 

APPLICATIONS OF THE SEAL IN THE NEW 
TESTAMENT. 

In view of the existence of the Abrahamic 
Covenant under the New Dispensa- 

t , _ , Applications 

tion, it is reasonable to expect to find of seal in New 

, -r, i e i f Testament. 

instances in the Record, of the appli- 
cation of the seal, in accordance with the original 
terms in the days of Abraham. And we find 
them there. Even if they had not been recorded, 
it could be reasonably inferred that the Gentiles, 
as taught by Paul, adopted the requirements of 
the Covenant, as a matter of due course; but the 
Record states how fully the teachings of Paul 
took effect in this regard, and how families 
were received into full covenant relations. 

Analysis of the cases of Christian baptism in 
the New Testament is interesting. There are 
eleven of these occasions recorded. Of these, 
two were of Jews, one of Samaritans, and eight 
of Gentiles. Of the two cases of Jews, one was 
at Pentecost, when children were stated to be 
included in the promises; the benefits of which 



and the Mystery of the Jew 51 

thousands availed themselves, and received the 
seal of the Covenant. Of the eight cases of 
the Gentiles, three comprised households ; in just 
such language and under just such conditions 
as covered the inauguration of the Covenant, in 
the family and household of Abraham, as re- 
corded in the seventeeth chapter of Genesis. In- 
deed, the similarity of the expressions, and of 
the ideas conveyed are remarkable, and are well 
worth actual comparison; which can easily be 
made, from the text of this treatise. The house- 
hold baptisms are recorded in 

Acts xvi. — 14. And a certain woman 
named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the 
city of Thyatira, which worshipped 
God, heard us; whose heart the Lord 
opened, that she attended unto the 
things which were spoken of Paul. 

15. And when she was baptized, and 
her household, she besought us, saying, 
If ye have judged me to be faithful to 
the Lord, come into my house, and 
abide there. And she constrained us. 

29. Then he called for a light, and 
sprang in, and came trembling, and fell 
down before Paul and Silas ; 

30. And brought them out, and said, 
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 

31. And they said, Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved, and thy house. 



52 The Story of the Covenant 

32. And they spake unto him the 
word of the Lord, and to all that were 
in the house. 

33. And he took them the same hour 
of the night, and washed their stripes; 
and was baptized, he and all his, 
straightway. 

J^ 5)C 5fC 3JC 5{x 5JJ 

I. Cor. i. — 16. And I baptized also 
the household of Stephanas ; besides, I 
know not whether I baptized any other. 

The question evidently arose, in the course of 
Paul's preaching and teaching, as to who were 
the proper recipients of the seal of the Cove- 
nant. As to adults, there could be no doubt, 
both as to men and women. In the case of the 
Jews, it was likewise plain; as they fully under- 
stood the conditions; and we find not one word 
of instruction to them in this regard. With the 
Gentiles, however, it was different, and they 
needed special direction in this particular, as 
well as others. 

The city of Corinth, like other Grecian cities 

Children en- of that da y» was exceedingly corrupt ; 
titled to seal. f w hich Paul treats in his letters to 
the Corinthians; and he likewise explicitly 
instructs them as to the children who are 
entitled to receive the seal of the Covenant; hav- 
ing in view, and in accordance with the prophecy 
in Malachi ii. — 15 : "That He might seek a Godly 



and the Mystery of the Jew 53 

seed"; the intent and purpose of the Covenant 
in its establishment: using, as was his custom, 
expressions from the Old Testament, by which 
he designated the ceremonial difference between 
two classes of children; those who were entitled 
to receive the benefits and seal of the Covenant, 
and those who were not. Great significance at- 
taches to the inspired utterance of the apostle in 
thus clearly defining the status of children, as 
follows : 

I. Cor. vii. — 13. And the woman 
which hath an husband that believeth 
not, and if he be pleased to dwell with 
her, let her not leave him. 

14. For the unbelieving husband is 
sanctified by the wife, and the unbeliev- 
ing wife is sanctified by the husband; 
ELSE WERE YOUR CHILDREN 
UNCLEAN; BUT NOW THEY ARE 

HOLY. 
****** 



54 The Story of the Covenant 



CHAPTER XII. 

WHAT IS BAPTISM FOR? 

Those who have closely followed the reading 
of this treatise, have doubtless observed that at 
no time has it descended to the level of a mere 
argument, or contrasted, for the sake of 
argument, the views herein deduced from the 
Scriptures, with those of other beliefs. The 
main purport has been to make a statement of 
the doctrines of the Covenant, as shown by the 
Scriptures. 

This statement is made because the book may 
fall into the hands of those who are not at one 
with us in our construction of the doctrine; 
and any harsh, and apparently ungenerous state- 
ments would grate upon keen susceptibilities ; 
and perhaps wound gentle natures. Such a thing 
would not only be foolish and unnecessary; it 
would be wicked and unchristian ; and nothing is 
further from the intention in writing the book, 
than such a deplorable result. 

This is stated here, because, under the caption 
at the head of this section, it may, in its treat- 



and the Mystery of the Jew 55 

ment, be necessary to allude, by inference, to 
other tenets of beliefs than ours. If so, care 
will be exercised in treating a subject worn 
threadbare by long years of discussion, to avoid 
undue expressions which may wound. 

This book is written to confirm those whc 
hold the system of doctrine it enunciates : to 
fully inform those whose opportunities in that 
direction may have been lacking; and to throw 
light upon the subject to those who may be 
seeking for what we consider the Truth; and 
not to controvert the well fixed beliefs of 
body, or to enter into useless disputations, merely 
for the sake of argument. 

* * * * * * 

The Protestant churches of to-day have two 
ordinances : 

(1) THE LORD'S SUPPER: Installed by 
the Savior Himself; His last official _. . 

act, on the night of His betrayal: 5 ---'- - : 
immediately following, and, as intended for all 
time, the supplanting and succeeding the Pass- 
over. 

Observe (1) It was instituted by His com- 
mand. 

(2) To be observed, till He come, 'Tn re- 
membrance of Me.'' 

Xote a remarkable fact: that it is the only 
commemorative institution established by the 



56 The Story of the Covenant 

Savior; and that, in spite of the tendency 
of humankind to desire the contrary, He 
left no trace of any instructions upon 
which to found else anything of the sort. 
If the place of His crucifixion were known; if 
the spot where He lay in His tomb could be 
definitely located, piles of marble in the form 
of churches and such like would mark the places. 
Indeed, human propensity in that direction is so 
strong, that memorials in various forms indi- 
cate where He was supposed to have been laid. 
But the Savior apparently foresaw this, and left 
nothing upon which to justly base such proceed- 
ings. The Church has not been willing to take 
Him at His word. The calendar of the Romish 
Church of to-day is an interminable list of 

feast days : Good Friday, Easter, The 
Good Friday! Lenten Season, and others of that 
SitSions?" fashion; to say nothing of the feasts 

of various "saints": Paul, Peter, and 
others of that, and even later days. And even 
some branches of the Protestant Church follow, 
to a more or less degree, the example of the 
Romish Church. They are all human devices, 
pure and simple. The Presbyterian Church, in 
all her history, has set her face against such 
proceedings, as a part of Church requirements; 
not only as extraneous to spirituality, but as 



and the Mystery of the Jew 57 

leading, in possibilities, to something worse. 
Unquestionably, human propensity tends in that 
direction. It is clearly so expressed Tendsto 
and provided against in the prohib- idolatr y- 
itory clause of the second commandment of the 
Decalogue : "Thou shalt not make unto thee any 
graven image"; and if allowed full rein to lead 
to logical results, it tends inevitably to idolatry; 
as can readily be seen in countries where the 
Romish Church predominates ; and even in 
Cobrado and New Mexico, in this country. 

The other ordinance of the Protestant 
Church is that of 

BAPTISM. What is it for? 

(1) It was not instituted by the command 
of the Lord, for He received the ordi- 
nance Himself, as one which already 

existed. 

(2) It was not "In remembrance"; for there 
is not a hint of such a thing in the Scriptures. 

(3) It is not an antitype, for there is no in- 
timation of anything of the kind; and a matter 
of such importance would have been clearly and 
explicitly stated. 

(4) It is not a prototype, for that would 
have probably been of more impor- Wh tB 
tance than the antitype, in the after tism means. 
ages of the Church to follow; and strict com- 



58 The Story of the Covenant 

mand as to its observance would have been 
given. 

(5) It is not a commemoration of any event 
in the life of the Savior, because others had been 
baptized by John, even before the Savior was, 
and three years before His death, the baptism 
of Jesus took place. 

(6) It is not "an example" set by the Savior 
for the same reason; nor did He, in the full 
sense of the term, ever receive Christian 
baptism. 

Then what was it? We find it was practiced, 
in the very beginning of New Testament days, 
as recorded in the gospels; an institution appar- 
ently in full force; stated in a manner which 
presupposes that everybody understood it; and, 
indeed, as if it were superfluous to enter into 
any explanations as to its character and de- 
sign. This was entirely different from the case 
of the Lord's Supper: a newly established insti- 
tution for the Church. 

There seems to be but one conclusion, log- 
ically, in the matter. 

If no instructions were ever given by the 
Savior, by the apostles, or by anybody else, it 
must have been because none were necessary. 
What object was there to leave the Church in 
doubt? Was it such a useless, meaningless, un- 
important matter as that ? 



and the Mystery of the Jew 59 

No, it was not. People of those days under- 
stood that it was a type of the same thing as had 
been practiced for two thousand years; a type 
so plain it needed no explanation to them. If 
there had been any change, it would have been 
explained. There is no record of any change and 
no explanation. The Jew fully understood the 
types and the Covenant. It would have been 
superfluous, at that time, to further elaborate it. 

And it was not meaningless or unnecessary; 
far from that; for the application of Ba .,_ 
the seal was a requirement; wilful Covenant 6 
non-observance of which invited and 
entailed a heavy penalty. 

THEREFORE, IT SEEMS CLEAR, BY 
INFERENCE, BY DEDUCTION, AND BY 
SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IN THE EPIS- 
TLES, THAT BAPTISM WAS THE AP- 
PLICATION OF THE SEAL OF THE 
ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 



6o The Story of the Covenant 



chapter: xiii. 



the balance sheet. 



WE FIND: 

(i) That God entered into a Covenant with 
Abraham, for himself, and for his children, and 
his posterity, temporal and spiritual. 

(2) That this Covenant was to be everlast- 
ing. 

(3) That a token, or seal, was required to 
ratify it. 

(4) That He sought a Godly seed. 

(5) That when the prophecies were fulfilled 
on the Cross, the type of blood was abolished 
(circumcision) — and that of water, in baptism, 
with the same spiritual significance, was sub- 
stituted. 

(6) That no injunction, or even intimation 
was ever given that the New Dispensation in- 
volved the abolishment of any of the conditions 
of the Covenant. 

(7) That on the contrary, in the first public 
utterance of any of the apostles, it was affirmed; 



and the Mystery of the Jew 6i 

and was repeatedly reaffirmed afterwards, in all 
its details. 

(8) That when the children of Shem re- 
jected the Savior, and abandoned their tents; 
and when the children of Japheth, sought out 
by Paul, the apostle, entered into, and dwelt 
therein; and when the branches of the wild olive 
tree were grafted in on the good olive tree, full 
provision had been made, by prophecy in the 
days of Noah, and by promise in the days of 
Abraham, for their reception and adjustment; 
and to effect their assimilation into full covenant 
relations. 

(9) That several instances are recorded 
where the seal of the Covenant, in the new form 
of baptism, was applied to the households of 
believers. 

(10) That specific instructions are given to 
the Gentiles as to the rights of children of be- 
lieving parents to receive the seal of the Cove- 
nant, and enjoy its benefits and privileges. 

THEREFORE, We conclude that the 
COVENANT between God and Abraham, 

AND HIS SEED, IS IN FULL FORCE IN THE CHURCH 
AT THIS TIME; AND THAT INFANTS AND ADULTS 
ALIKE ARE TO BE BAPTIZED. 

"THIS IS MY COVENANT with 
them, saith the LORD : My Spirit that 
is upon thee, and my words which I 



62 The Story of the Covenant 

have put in thy mouth, shall not depart 
out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth 
of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of 
thy seed's seed, SAITH THE LORD, 
FROM HENCEFORTH AND FOR- 
EVER." 



and the Mystery of the Jew 63 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PRACTICAL. 

The due observance of the conditions of the 
Abrahamic Covenant involves the membership 
of infants in the Church as well as adults; and 
likewise the application of the seal, which, in 
this day, is baptism. As to adults, in the result 
of its operations, there is no doubt. 

As to infants, DOES THE COVENANT 

WORK? IS IT A MERE THEORY OF TO-DAY, OB- 
SERVED WITH THE EMPTY RESULTS OF RITUALISTIC 
INANITY J A SORT OF FORM TO GO THROUGH WITH J 
THIS BAPTISM OF INFANTS, LARGELY BECAUSE OUR 
FATHERS DID? ARE WE TO EXPECT ANY GOOD 
RESULTS FROM THIS COVENANT MADE NEARLY 
FOUR THOUSAND YEARS AGO? 

NO. 

When Christian parents, lightly esteeming the 
promises of God; neglecting their Whenthe 
own privileges, and those of their neT n ? n d is 
children, deem it a mere matter of 



64 The Story of the Covenant 

choice as to whether to have the chosen seal 
applied to their helpless children. This seal 
cost heavily: the blood of the very Son of God: 
and yet it is held in light esteem by some 
thoughtless parents. And the helpless child has 
its rights of which it is thus deprived by its 
natural and only protectors and guardians. 
The civil law requires parents to provide for the 
children they bring into the world; food, 
clothing, shelter, protection, education. The 
higher spiritual law also demands that the child 
be provided for spiritually; and yet many par- 
ents take the awful risk enunciated in Genesis, 
seventeenth chapter, fourteenth verse. 

Better, from a Scriptural standpoint, the child 
had not been born. 

SOMETIMES. 

When believing parents have the seal applied, 
and then turn the child loose on the 

When the .— . . . , 

Covenant is streets. Out in the west, they place 

partially kept. , _. . 

a brand on the young offspring of 
cattle, and then turn them out on the range. 
The young thing is comparatively safe as long 
as it is under the care of its guardian, the 
mother; then it is left to shift for itself; among 
the wolves ; out in the storms ; the drought of 
the mid-day and the frost of night. In due time 



and the Mystery of the Jew 65 

comes the round-up, when everything found is 
driven to the homestead. Is the young thing 
there ? It may be, and it may not. 

And yet to-day, some parents are willing to 
turn their young children, with the seal upon 
them, when the apron strings of the mother are 
loosened, out among the wolves of modern 
society; in the droughts like those of the pro- 
miscuous ball-room, or that new agent of Satan, 
the modern gambling society card table; or the 
frost of night in dissolute companionships, and 
other demoralizing agencies; and when the 
round-up comes, they wonder that the poor, neg- 
lected child is missing. 

Or mayhap, in less culpable ways, the divine 
admonitions in the direction of observing Cove- 
nant terms are not heeded: neglect of the Sab- 
bath, or slighting its observance; failure to set 
up and maintain the family altar in the home, 
and the absence of instruction in the Word of 
God, spite of the injunctions by divinity itself, 
as to the statutes of the Lord, such as 

And thou shall teach them diligently 
unto thy children, and shalt talk of them 
when thou sittest down in thy house, 
and when thou walkest by the way, and 
when thou liest down, and when thou 
risest up. — Deut. xi. — 19. 



66 The Story of the Covenant 

yes. always. 

When the seal is applied, and the parents, 
having due regard for their vows, 

When the . . . 

Covenant is based upon the admonition of Scrip- 

fullykept. .,,11 1-, 

ture, give the helpless little one spir- 
itual as well as physical food; when its lips are 
taught to utter the name of God among its first 
expressions; when its dawning intelligence per- 
ceives holy surroundings in the family ; when its 
first conscious perception is met by expressions 
it itself can utter; taught even before it knew 
their significance; and when it can make for 
itself the good confession it was early prepared 
to make; and, at whatever age that may be, it 
intelligently expresses its faith in the Savior, 
and takes its place among the Lord's people 
for itself; THEN the Covenant works. 

Then the promises of God are sure, and the 
godly parents can rest content that theirs is a 
child of the Covenant, and that the protecting 
hand of God will shield and lead it for time and 
for eternity. 

This solace has comforted and supported 
godly parents in all the ages of the Church. It 
is sure, and as certain as the Rock of Ages. 
To-day, thousands and tens of thousands of 
godly parents; well knowing from their own 
experience of the storms and temptations, trials 



and the Mystery of the Jew 67 

and vicissitudes of this earthly life; with parental 
anxiety for the future of the helpless infants 
which have come to them, have taken their little 
ones to the God of Abraham, and in full faith 
in the promises, have had the seal of the Cove- 
nant applied; feeling well assured in this act 
of dedication and consecration, that thereafter, 
they become the peculiar care of Jehovah; and 
that in His own time, in His own way, at the 
Home-coming, they will all be there. 



68 The Story of the Covenant 



CHAPTER X\. 
EPILOGUE. 

WHAT OF THE SONS OF SHEM ? 

The history of the Jew, by far the longest 
and most detailed of any on earth, is full of 
marvels and of pathos. The father and founder 
of the race was, among men, a giant in force 
and character ; and his name has been universally 
revered among our human kind. His immediate 
descendants were men of mark and influence, 
and would so have been in any age. The in- 
crease of the family was so rapid, that in less 
than five hundred years, when the nation was 
formally set on its feet at Sinai, in the plains of 
Arabia, duly furnished with a code of laws 
which has been the model for all succeeding 
generations, they numbered about three millions. 
Under Moses, the mighty leader and the greatest 
law-giver of any age, they swept up on the land 
of Canaan, conquered the pagan population, ex- 
terminated it, and divided the land into twelve 
sections, one for each tribe; and settled down 
for a long career of fifteen hundred years. 



and the Mystery of the Jew 69 

Their national existence was filled with vicissi- 
tudes. Subjections by contiguous nations: dis- 
satisfactions at various periods, followed by in- 
ternal dissensions and revolts; till after an 
existence of five hundred years the nation was 
riven in twain; remaining so till the captivities 
of Babylon; one section in two centuries, the 
other in four centuries after the division. 

Returning from Babylon in broken sections, 
they never fully regained their former power 
and prestige. 

All down through their history, through their 
founders and prophets, they were in constant 
communication with Jehovah; and it was for 
disobedience of His commands, and the sin of 
idolatry, that the nation met wreck and ruin in 
their Babylonish captivity. But through it all, 
they were cheered by the prophecies of a com- 
ing Leader and Deliverer, who would relieve the 
nation of all its distresses, and put them upon 
a greater and grander footing than they had 
ever occupied. 

The opening of the Christian era found the 
Jewish nation in the clutches of the Roman Em- 
pire, then, under the Emperor Augustus, in the 
zenith of its power. The provinces were under 
appointees of the Roman government; Roman 



70 The Story of the Covenant 

soldiers were scattered all over Jewry to keep 
the people under utter subjection; Roman fort- 
resses dotted the land; and even in the sacred 
city of Jerusalem, the tower of Antonia, a 
Roman garrison and fortress, overlooked the 
Temple itself ; a magnificent structure which had 
been rebuilt by King Herod, who then, under 
Rome, ruled Judea. 

To this period, by common consent, the old 
prophecies, foretelling the coming of the Mes- 
siah, the Deliverer, unerringly pointed ; and the 
hopes of the Jews were high, that the term of 
their subjection to the Romans was at last 

nearing its end. 

****** 

About the year 26, A. D., the nation was 
startled by the powerful preaching of a man 
called John, surnamed the Baptist. Unique in 
character: suggesting the return of one of the 
old prophets, his call to national repentance was 
coupled with the vigorous announcement that the 
coming of the expected Messiah was at hand, 
and the injunction was urged to prepare for 
Him. The whole nation flocked out to the wil- 
derness of Judea, where he was preaching, to 
hear him; soldiers, Scribes, Pharisees, priests 
and the common people. 

About the same time appeared in Galilee and 
Judea another even more remarkable man. 



and the Mystery of the Jew ji 

While his line of descent was in the royal line 
of David, his local surroundings at home, in 
Nazareth, his parentage and affiliations, were 
humble and poor. His character was extraordi- 
nary: simple and unpretentious, irreproachable 
in morals, but withal, independent, self-con- 
tained and authoritative. He began to preach, 
and in one of his public utterances, in a syna- 
gogue, he declared Himself the expected Mes- 
siah. He began to perform mighty miracles; 
He spoke like no man ever spoke before ; crowds 
followed His footsteps and hung upon His 
words. In unmeasured terms he denounced the 
existing order of things in the Jewish nation 
and Church; decrying the impiety and hypocrisy 
of the Jewish leaders; and extending by word 
and deed, his sympathy to the poor and desti- 
tute. He gathered about him a company of 
twelve men, generally as poor and humble as 
himself, and with them traversed the land ; poor, 
with no settled home, and dependent upon his 
friends. The movement grew; His popularity 
increased ; insurrection among the people seemed 
imminent, until the chief men of the nation, the 
priests, Scribes and Pharisees, were compelled 
to take notice of the situation seriously, with 
the determination to quell the great disquiet in 
the nation, and to put this man out of the way. 



72 The Story of the Covenant 

The struggle was not a long one; gradually 
they wound their toils about the Galilean; and 
it all ended in a scene, just outside of the gates 
of Jerusalem, when the man, convicted in an 
illegal court on the testimony of perjured wit- 
nesses, and His own statement before the high 
priest that he was the Christ, the Son of God; 
at thirty-three years of age, was executed by the 
barbarous method of crucifixion. 

^C Sfc ^ 5fc 3fc if. 

Since that day what of the Jew? Oh, it was 
pitiful ! This man Jesus was the Messiah ! Why 
could they not see it? Why could they not 
recognize divinity in His lineaments and in His 
every act? Love, divine love, in His sympathy 
for the poor, His healing the sick, His binding 
up the broken-hearted, His conquering the devils, 
and His raising the dead? Why did not the 
longings of His great heart: hungry for, and 
yearning for, affection, meet a sympathetic re- 
turn? His sorrows and His tears for a reject- 
ing people move millions to-day: why not then? 
His lamentations over His misguided people are 
pathetic beyond words : 

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest 
the prophets and stonest them that are 
sent unto thee, how often would I have 
gathered thy children together, as a hen 



and the Mystery of the Jew 73 

doth gather her brood under her wings, 
and ye would not! 

Behold, your house is left unto you, 
desolate. 
But they did reject him, as old Noah had said 
they would, more than two thousand years be- 
fore. 

*l* ■!* 5)C 5|C 3{C 5j* 

And then what? The doom of the Jews as 
a nation was sealed. Amid scenes of internal 
strife and murder and blood ; of insurrection and 
turmoil; the Roman soldiers, murderous and 
cruel in their work; the famous tenth legion of 
Caesar encamped on the very Mount of Olives; 
forty years afterwards, the sacred city of Jeru- 
salem was sacked and demolished by the Roman, 
Titus; the national hearth-stone was destroyed, 
and the Jewish nation was no more. 

To-day, as they have been ever since, they 
are scattered over the face of the earth. Un- 
like any other people, they have no national 
home; but, unlike all other races, their char- 
acteristics and nativity remain distinct and clear. 
The mystery surrounding them, from a human 
standpoint, is impenetrable. In no department 
of human activities are they inferior: in finance, 
in statesmanship, in professions, in business, in 
culture, and in morals, they have no superiors. 



74 The Story of the Covenant 

But they have been hounded and persecuted in 
every land. They have., in various degrees, been 
under a cloud in every age and in every country. 
Beaten, robbed and murdered, driven out or 
slaughtered, as they are to-day in Russia, they 
yet patiently struggle on, wandering, wandering, 
wandering. A brief foothold, a quick recovery 
and a beginning of recuperation; and again they 
must move on. To-day, led by noble philanthro- 
pists of their own race, they are striving to 
colonize in the old home-land of Palestine, but 
it will come to nought. They may set up their 
house, but there will be no national hearth-stone. 
****** 

Contented, happy in the light of Christian 
civilization, the children of Japheth now occupy 
the old spiritual home of the children of Shem. 
Basking in the light of the Sun of Righteous- 
ness, these beneficiaries of an inheritance that 
cost them nothing, sometimes cast contumely on 
the disinherited sons of Shem. Ye godless sons 
of Japheth, beware! Hands off the chosen of 
God ! Know ye not that they are yet His people, 
though now under His displeasure? Can you 
not see they are merely held in abeyance for 
some mysterious design? Can you not perceive 
that for some inscrutable purpose they have 



and the Mystery of the Jew 75 

been kept apart: a peculiar people — from inter- 
mingling with other nations, and that, in God's 
own time, at His call they can answer millions 
strong, with the Hebrew blood as pure and un- 
mixed as it was in the days of Moses, when 
their nation was founded? Then take heed; for 
the day is approaching when the "fulness of 
the sons of Japheth will come in." 

And well should the godly sons of Japheth 
think on these things. The past of the Jew is 
an assurance that God is not yet done with them 
in His dealings. They are kept separate for 
something. This, even if inspiration had not 
spoken: whereas it has done so in unmistakable 
terms. The apostle Paul has uttered his warn- 
ings; and even if the Jew is, at this time, under 
the displeasure of God, his time will come again. 
Let us hope that it will not be by supplanting 
the sons of Japheth; but rather by the continued 
faithfulness of the Gentiles, and the acknowl- 
edgment of the Messiah by the sons of Shem. 
There is room for both: there are tents for all. 
And Paul warns the sons of Japheth in momen- 
tous words: 

Romans ii. — I. Hath God cast away 
His people? God forbid. 

2. God hath not cast away His 
people which He foreknew. 



j6 The Story of the Covenant 

5. So then at this present time also 
there is a remnant according to the elec- 
tion of grace. 

7. What then? Israel hath not ob- 
tained that which he seeketh for; but 
the election hath obtained it, and the 
rest were blinded. 

8. (According as it is written, God 
hath given them the spirit of slumber, 
eyes that they should not see, and ears 
that they should not hear) unto this 
day. 

11. I say then, Have they stumbled 
that they should fall ? God forbid : but 
rather through their fall salvation is 
come to the Gentiles, for to provoke 
them to jealousy. 

12. Now if the fall of them be the 
riches of the world, and the diminishing 
of them the riches of the Gentiles; how 
much more their fulness? 

13. For I speak to you Gentiles, in- 
asmuch as I am apostle of the Gen- 
tiles, I magnify mine office: 

14. If by any means I may provoke 
to emulation them which are my flesh, 
and might save some of them. 

15. For if the casting away of them 
. be the reconciling of the world, what 

shall the receiving of them be, but life 
from the dead? 

16. For if the first fruit be holy, the 
lump is also holy; and if the root be 
holy, so are the branches. 



and the Mystery of the Jew 77 

17. And if some of the branches be 
broken off, and thou, being a wild olive 
tree, wert grafted in among them, and 
with them partakest of the root and 
fatness of the olive tree; 

18. Boast not against the branches. 
But if thou boast, thou bearest not the 
root, but the roct thee. 

19. Thou wilt say then, The branches 
were broken off, that I might be graffed 
in. 

20. Well; because of unbelief they 
were broken off, and thou standest by 
faith. Be not high-minded, but fear: 

21. For if God spared not the natu- 
ral branches, take heed lest he also 
spare not thee. 

22. Behold therefore the goodness 
and severity of God; on them which 
fell, severity, but toward thee, good- 
ness, if thou continue in His goodness: 
otherwise thou shalt be cut off. 

23. And they also, if they abide not 
still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: 
for God is able to graff them in again. 

24. For if thou wert cut out of the 
olive tree which is wild by nature, and 
wert graffed contrary to nature into a 
good olive tree; how much more shall 
these, which be the natural branches, 
be graffed into their own olive tree? 

25. For I would not, brethren, that 
ye should be ignorant of this mystery 



78 The Story of the Covenant 

(lest ye should be wise in your own 
conceits) that blindness in part is hap- 
pened to Israel, until the fulness of the 
Gentiles be come in. 

26. And so all Israel shall be saved; 
as it is written, There shall come out of 
Zion a Deliverer, and shall turn away 
ungodliness from Jacob; 

27. For this is my covenant unto 
them, when I shall take away their sins. 

28. As concerning the gospel, they 
are enemies for your sakes: but as 
touching the election, they are beloved 
for the fathers' sake. 

29. For the gifts and calling of God 
are without repentance. 

30. For as ye in times past have not 
believed God, yet have now obtained 
mercy through their unbelief; 

31. Even so have these also now not 
believed that through your mercy they 
also may obtain mercy. 

32. For God hath concluded them 
all in unbelief, that he might have 
mercy upon all. 

33. O the depth of the riches both 
of the wisdom and knowledge of God! 
how unsearchable are the judgments, 
and his ways past finding out! 

34. For who hath known the mind of 
the Lord? or who hath been His coun- 
sellor ? 

35. Or who hath first given to Him, 



and the Mystery of the Jew fo, 

and it shall be recompensed unto him 
again ? 

36. For of Him, and through Him, 
and to Him are all things; to whom be 
glory forever. 



AMEN. 



THE MYSTERY OF THE JEW 

A Correspondence Between 

J. L. WOODBRIDGE 

Marshall, Missouri 

And 

Miss ANNETTE KOHN 

New York City 

1906 



and the Mystery of the Jew 83 



The Mystery of the Jew* 



CHAPTER XVI. 

IN EXPLANATION. 

The following correspondence grew out of an 
article in the New York Independent, in its 
issue of November 8th, 1906, under the cap- 
tion: "The Public Estimate of the Jew"; and 
was based upon a clause in the article as fol- 
lows: 

"Let us be frank about it. Whether 
it is socially, whether as a citizen in 
many lands, in many forms somewhere, 
in some form everywhere, there is still 
a ban, a prejudice, at least an exclama- 
tion, or an interrogation point. Theo- 
retical expressions on paper and prac- 
tical working of affairs are, as to him, 
at variance. 
Why? 

Is it altogether because of that an- 
cient ((however false) blame of the 
crucifixion, and the rejection of one of 
his own sons as God, or as prophet ?" 



84 The Story of the Covenant 

It is worthy of remark that the correspond- 
ence was had prior to the inception of the book 
m which it is now published ; and it is introduced 
here because of its entire pertinence to the sub- 
ject matter of the book. 

Miss Kohn is a woman of high standing 
among her people; is engaged in literary and 
philanthropic work; enjoying an enviable repu- 
tation as a poet and writer, which is by no means 
limited to America; as her work is well known 
among English speaking Jews the world over; 
especially in England and Australia. 

And acknowledgment is made here of her de- 
lightful courtesy in permitting the publication 
of this correspondence. It is safe to predict that 
the letters of this cultivated woman, who so 
forcefully and eloquently states the religious 
views of her people, will be enjoyed by the 
reader. 

J. L. WOODBRIDGE. 



and the Mystery of the Jew 87 



Marshall, Mo., Nov. 12th, 1906. 
Miss Annette Kohn, New York City: 

Miss Kohn — I trust you will pardon any 
seeming presumption in this letter from an en- 
tire stranger, but I wish to say to you how much 
I enjoyed your article in the last Independent. 

It is, perhaps, for three reasons: (1) Its ex- 
cellent style and composition; (2) because I 
have devoted some study to the Jew, both from 
the Scriptures and other sources; and (3) it has 
been my misfortune to have never had the priv- 
ilege of knowing an educated Jew, to discuss 
the subject so interesting to me. 

For I do not allow the fact that I am an elder 
in the Presbyterian Church to abate one jot or 
tittle my interest in your race; and indeed, it is 
the fact that I have for years lectured, every 
Sunday, to a Bible class, which has led me to 
study this question in its apparent perplexities. 

The result of this study has been a keen desire 
to talk to a well informed Jew. Not in a contro- 
versial spirit; I am long past that; but to get 
information. And I do trust what I may say 
here may not be construed in any but the most 
kindly way. 

One result of my study has been to implant 
within me (as I was about to say) a feeling of 
superstition. I believe the Jews are God's 
people; and that while they are under His dis- 



88 The Story of the Covenant 

pleasure now, yet they are likewise under His 
care; and that woe is to be to any nation which 
oppresses them. And I go further than that; 
far I think that woe is to be to any individual 
who wrongs a Jew. Aside from any ethical 
standpoint, business or social, I would as soon 
wrong a child as a Jew. 

Now I trust you have done yourself the justice 
to familiarize yourself with the New Testament, 
as well as with the Old. Every Jew ought to do 
that; and I shall quote from the New Testa- 
ment. For you know, vice versa, we Presby- 
terians lay as much store by Abraham as you 
Jews do. We do not permit you to monopolize 
the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant. It is 
the basis of our Church; and when my five 
children came into the world, they were, as soon 
as possible, given the seal of baptism and thus 
brought within the pale of the Covenant; as my 
ancestors have been, to my knowledge, for three 
hundred years. 

So I feel sure you will not misunderstand any- 
thing I may say about your article. From a cer- 
tain standpoint, I feel it lacks just a little in point 
of eulogy of the Jew. The letter of Olive 
Schreiner, which you quote, is not one whit over- 
drawn. In every department of human activity, 
the Jew has been a master. The use of this 
whole page in that direction, would fail to fully 
set forth their case. Did you ever read the "Jews' 
Letters to Voltaire"? Out of print now, I think, 
but a valued book in my library; in which they 
have taken up and demolished the great infidel 
for his attack on the Old Testament. It is so in 



and the Mystery of the Jew 89 

every department ; and any man who disputes 
this but displays his own ignorance, or makes 
shameful display of his prejudice. 

Then what is the matter? For something is 
the matter; and whatever that something is, is 
a wonder that should excite the investigation 
and attention of the thinking world. The fact 
that Beaconsfield was the master-mind of the 
British realms; that the Rothschilds dominate 
the world, through their financial genius ; that in 
our country Judah P. Benjamin was inferior to 
none in jurisprudence; that Mr. Straus has won, 
by sheer brains and force, recognition in our 
political world; that in all walks in our land 
the Jew is in front; always respectable, with a 
minimum of pauperism; leading in the charities 
and public spirit; in view of this category, and 
a possibly limitless one which could follow ; what 
is the matter? 

I go to a summer resort, and find the best, 
most expensive hotel, perfect in its appoint- 
ments; where only people of wealth and refine- 
ment can lodge and receive its benefits; and I 
find it devoted to Jews, with but little Gentile 
patronage. 

What is the matter? It avails nothing if some 
great Jew is for the while given recognition. 
The next generation, and the next, and the next, 
just as it has been in the past, will find the same 
relative position between the Jew and the Gen- 
tile. 

I wish I could ask you what you think of the 
prophecies of the Old Testament. And I do 
not exactly mean the Major and Minor prophets. 



$o The Story of the Covenant 

For instance, that one in the gth of Genesis, 27th 
verse, relating to Japheth. Of course we Gen- 
tiles see its fulfillment in the nth of Romans, 
as well as in the letter to the Ephesians. I am 
enclosing one of my class lectures upon this very 
subject which may interest you: and I may add 
that its chief interest will be lost unless the refer- 
ences quoted are consulted. It bears just upon 
this very point. 

Referring to your article, second column, first 
page; in the paragraph "Is it altogether," etc., I 
want to answer for the Gentiles, "YES." It is 
not because the Gentile has studied out the ques- 
tion for himself, entirely; but he has been told 
so by High Authority; and his observation has 
taught him that there is a great Something in 
the way ; that there has been ever since, as Hume 
(I think) says, that period of time when, 
whether the Resurrection had anything to do 
with it or not, a simple Nazarene was crucified 
for the crime of blasphemy; and when the cur- 
rent of thought, in the channel of history, was 
diverted, and old ideas were subverted, and new 
ones, as taught by the Nazarene; emphasized 
by the destruction of the Temple and of the 
great city itself; Jerusalem, the center of theo- 
logical ideas since the days of Melchizedek; be- 
came dominant, and gradually conquered the 
world. 

Now I know you will be charitable enough to 
take these remarks from an ethical standpoint. 
It is as a Gentile sees it, and as he feels it to be 
the truth. There are many confirmatory fea- 
tures which he constantly confronts. It is like 



and the Mystery of the Jew 91 

the method the doctors have in the matter of 
diagnosis: that of exclusion. With this view, 
the position of the Jew is understood; without 
it, 'tis a mystery. 

As I understand it (am I right?) the Jew of 
the present day is positive in his conviction as 
to the spuriousness of the Messiahship of Jesus 
of Nazareth. May I ask if the teachings of all 
the Rabbins are purely what the Old Testament 
proclaims: the expectation of a Messiah — long 
looked-for, and at any time? And what is the 
Judaism of to-day? I mean, as a system, and 
not as a code of morality. 

Would you like to know, in conclusion, what 
a Gentile thinks? That the Jews are as much 
the people of Jehovah as they were in the days 
of Moses; under His watchful care; that, in 
His divine foreknowledge He is aware of their 
future, and that, in time, and before eternity, 
the nation will see Him as He is, and will be in 
His favor; and that all this mystery, this Some- 
thing, will be removed; and the Jew will take 
his place where he belongs among the races, 
as the peculiar people, the favored of Jehovah. 

I have extended this letter longer than I in- 
tended. I have enjoyed writing it, and I hope 
you will not find it tedious. 

Respectfully, 

J. L. Woodbridge. 

New York, Nov. 16th, 1906. 
Mr. J. L. Woodbridge: 

Dear Sir — The Independent has forwarded me 



92 The Story of the Covenant 

your letter. I appreciate your appreciation of 
my article. 

The reason you have met few cultivated people 
of my fa.th is probably the result of your living 
in a small town. Just because of this prejudice, 
they prefer living in large cities, where they are 
freer, and need come in contact less with people 
who do not meet them acceptably. 

Come to the great cities anywhere and you 
will find the Jew anyone's equal in culture and 
savoire faire. As to the great "Why"? You 
simply treat the Jew as an outcast. I will never 
admit that he is an "outcast" : he is not. 

A great deal of the prejudice (that is not 
fostered in Sunday Schools, and is not the belief 
that he is under a divine curse) is merely class 
or caste prejudice — in another form an admis- 
sion that the Jew is ethically superior, or finan- 
cially more successful, because of his self-re- 
straint, his thrift, his temperate habits ; and for 
these reasons his inferiors, yes, that is the word, 
hate him, as the lower classes have always se- 
cretly or openly revolted against those above 
them; or in better words, against the privileged 
classes. Yes, the Jew in the best sense, is of 
the privileged class; for the only real privileged 
class is that enjoying a higher code of ethics; 
our Law gives us that. We do not damn and 
ban those who differ from us. Our prophets 
teach: "All the righteous shall inherit the king- 
dom of God." 

As for accepting Jesus as partaking of divinity 
through any special incarnation, we never could, 
we never would. We can only accept our God 



and the Mystery of the Jew 93 

as pure Spirit. The Decalogue says plainly "no 
likeness of anything on, above or under the 
earth." The only divinity in man we accept is 
that which stamps all men equally; "in His 
image." The Deity can dwell in all men if they 
so will. Yours very truly, 

Annette Kohn. 

Marshall, Mo., Nov. 20th, 1906. 
Miss Annette Kohn, New York: 

Miss Kohn — Pardon, please, my again writing 
you ; but I failed to get from your esteemed 
letter of the 16th information I am so much in 
need of. And I so esteem the privilege of dis- 
cussing the subject with an educated representa- 
tive of your race, that I am loth to let the matter 
drop without finding out more, along the lines 
indicated. 

I regret you could possibly have construed 
my letter so as to deduce the suggestion of "out- 
cast" from its contents. Surely I could have 
meant no such thing as the word is construed 
at this day. Rather, "homeless," or a people 
"without a country." Surely I am not wrong 
in this construction. Else, your article in the 
Independent would never have been written. 

Homeless, as a nation, they certainly are; and 
have ever been since Titus, with his Roman sol- 
diers encamped on the sunny slopes of the Mount 
of Olives, destroyed the hearth-stone of your 
nation; leaving not one stone of the glorious 
pile of Herod's Temple upon another; just as 
the Nazarene said would happen — His declara- 
tion made in tears, forty years before. 



94 The Story of the Covenant 

And you think the WHY is because of the 
prejudice of class or caste? I think history will 
fail to bear you out in that belief. To say 
nothing of the long centuries of persecutions in 
almost every land, of Jews rich and Jews poor; 
it is not because of class (privileged) that the 
Jew is under the heel of his tormentors in Rus- 
sia to-day; hounded by the Church and by the 
aristocracy, as well as by the rabble. Certainly, 
nobody envies his position as a privileged class. 
My principle of exclusion rules that hypothesis 
out. The "WHY" is not there. 

And I must contravene your suggestion that 
it is partly in the Sunday Schools. Beyond the 
censure that naturally falls upon the trial and 
execution of Jesus, no race hate or prejudice is 
taught in the Christian Sunday Schools. The 
trial? Have you ever studied it in its gross 
caricature of justice? Oh! how it has kept your 
Rabbins busy trying to soften its injustice! The 
parties to it are described by your own his- 
torian of the time, Josephus, in such a way as 
to preclude the expectation of justice. No, the 
WHY is not in the Sunday Schools; and I can 
but believe you will admit this by further 
thought; how your people find their best home, 
their freest actions, untrammeled and unhindered 
in their avocations, and appreciated in their do- 
mestic notions, and free exercise of their re- 
ligion, right in the two countries where to-day, 
the teachings of this same Jesus are more fully 
taught and practised than anywhere else on 
earth: England and the United States. I am 
sure you will not, you cannot, say the WHY 



and the Mystery of the Jew 95 

lies with the followers of the Nazarene. It is 
contrary to His instructions; and He does not 
permit His chosen race to be persecuted by His 
followers. 

Because His "code of ethics" is that of 
Heaven itself. I have never found one of your 
scholars who could criticise any of His teach- 
ings. I take issue with you that yours is the 
higher. The Sermon on the Mount transcends 
any other conception. This, I think, must have 
been in the mind of Napoleon when he said: "I 
know men; and I tell you Jesus Christ was not 
a man." I cannot refrain from calling your 
attention to my suggestion in my previous letter, 
that I hoped you are familiar with the New 
Testament; because "the New is in the Old 
contained, the Old is by the New explained"; 
and without the New, your system stands in- 
complete and misunderstood. 

Aside from questions I asked in my other 
letter, may I ask you to please tell me (answer- 
ing both together), the present status of the 
Law with your people ; and I ask for information 
(not argument): (1) Do you now observe the 
Law? (2) Do you observe the rite of circum- 
cision; and (3) do you observe the law of 
sacrifices ? 

Because: In the New Testament it is said 
that "Jesus is the end of the Law." Now that 
applies to me. The observances as required by 
the Law are not required of me, because I have 
taken Him as "the end of the Law." 

Now you have not taken Him as the "end"; 
therefore you are still under the reign of this 



$6 The Story of the Covenant 

Law. Do your Rabbins require its observance, 
as it was required of the "Church in the Wilder- 
ness"? If you do not, why? For I have never 
seen anything which warranted an abandonment ; 
and such Jews as I have known, never observed 
it. 

Pardon me, please, but I fear I see in your 
letter symptoms indicating that you are not your- 
self familiar with the Old Testament; or rather, 
the Talmud, or the Septuagint. Such quota- 
tions as you give, I think warrant me in think- 
ing you are taking somebody's construction of 
the Teachings. You speak of God as pure 
Spirit. Did your Rabbi tell you that? If so, 
your Rabbi is not in accord with the Scriptures, 
which clearly teach, by fact and implication, that 
God is an entity: a Person, an Individual. His 
Spirit "moved upon the face of the waters"; 
but, "God said." It is there, incontrovertibly, 
and in many more instances; especially, as ap- 
plied to "Jehovah," the God of the Hebrews, 
as distinguished from "Elohim," the God and 
Creator of the Universe. 

Now from what I have previously said, I don't 
think you can doubt my position; my respect; 
my (in a certain sense) reverence for the Jew, 
as God's people. But I want to file an indict- 
ment. I don't think they are a religious people 
at this time; at least, as I have observed them. 
Your law requires a religion of the heart, just 
as ours does. If the circumcision was not of the 
heart, it was useless. So Deuteronomy. I fear 
you are too much ritualistic, and (pardon, 



and the Mystery of the Jew 97 

please) I think you are yourself so. Your 
Scriptural quotations are not accurate. 

Read the 8th chapter of Nehemiah; when the 
great Nehemiah had the devout Ezra read the 
Book of the Law to the great assembled multi- 
tude of Jews. What a scene! Suppose your 
people in America were to have a gathering like 
that now ! 

But because of the great WHY, your religion 
has lost its life and vitality, and has descended to, 
what you yourself term, in your letter, a "code 
of ethics." Ethics, and no more. With the God 
of Abraham reduced to mere spirit! 

It is not we Christians who are lost and at 
sea; we (and especially Presbyterians) exalt the 
divine sovereignty of Jehovah, the God of Abra- 
ham, of Isaac and of Jacob. 

The WHY is no mystery to us; but at the 
same time, we tremble. Will you please read, 
at my special request, in the nth chapter of 
Romans, from the 17th to the 25th verses? We 
tremble, I say, because "if God spared not the 
natural branches, take heed lest He also spare 
not thee/' 

All in kindness, Miss Kohn, please, and I hope 
I have not wearied you. It is a subject dear to 
my heart; and I believe, in God's own time, the 
natural branches will be grafted in again. And 
in the meantime, may He have pity on the de- 
luded persecutors of His temporarily estranged 
people; and on Russia, where His people are 
slaughtered every day; whose cries ascend to 
Him who is of their race, and Who yet loves 
them; may He have pity, and make the crash 



98 The Story of the Covenant 

of the falling dynasty as light as possible; espe- 
cially when the innocent are to suffer; even 
though it is mostly because of His wrath, on 
account of the persecutions of His people. 
Sincerely, 

J. L. WOODBRIDGE. 

New York, Nov. 23d, 1906. 
Mr. J. L. Woodbridge : 

Dear Sir — I am in receipt of yours of 20th 
inst., in which you request me to answer "spe- 
cifically." 

My time is very much occupied. I am, of 
course, what is termed "a lady of leisure." But 
I have a town and a country house to run, and 
ours is a large household. I have an immense 
social circle, for I am a very worldly person, 
and entertain a good deal, and I like going out 
for social pleasure. I am actively interested 
in very many philanthropic undertakings ; I have 
a large correspondence ; I must, of course, find 
time to read, and I do a good deal of literary 
work, literature being merely one of my pleas- 
ures for which I ask no remuneration; I am 
constantly importuned for contributions, and 
that takes time. Besides, I love art and music, 
and they are jealous mistresses; and practicing, 
and the easel consume time. While I set not 
overmuch value on clothes, still any feminine 
creature in society must have them, and they take 
time. I like athletics, and that takes time. So you 
will understand correspondence with strangers^ 
however interesting, and however courteous one 
wishes to be, must be most limited. I have, 



and the Mystery of the Jew 99 

really, not much leisure, though my time is my 
own. 

But I will answer your letter in brief. 

Yes. I have read the New Testament. I 
know my own Bible (in the original) and I 
know yours. I have not only read the Gospels, 
but the Koran, and the Vedas, and the Zend 
Avesta. I have read Josephus. The Jews con- 
ceived a spiritual God through Abraham, who 
knew the voice of the Lord. That was the dif- 
ference between them and old civilizations. 
That is the main difference between them and 
the new. Catholics are Christians, I suppose, 
and they dress up a woman in their churches, 
in satin and jewelry, and worship her. Protest- 
ants nail a human man on a cross and worship 
him. Our God is ineffable, and pure spirit; of 
no shape, no form, the Lord of Heaven and 
Earth. 

"Outcasts"? I protest we are not. Only, the 
world and the churches have treated us so. You 
say "The Sunday Schools are not responsible 
for much of the prejudice against us." Were 
not men and women boys and girls first? And 
did they not, Catholic or Protestant, get their 
moral and religious training there? I repeat, 
Catholics were and are Christians, though a 
different sort from yours, yet followers of 
Christ and call him "Master." The Inquisition 
in Spain and Italy was Christian; the Inquisi- 
tion in Peru, Brazil and Mexico was Christian; 
Germany, with its Stockier and its "Hep, Hep" * 

* In answer to a communication inquiring as to the 



N 1 



ioo The Story of the Covenant 

is Christian; Austria, that turns back its Am- 
bassadors from other countries, because their 
wives are Jewesses, is Christian ; France, that 
sent Dreyfus to Devil's Island, knowing him to 
be innocent, is Christian ; Russia, that fiend of 
Hell, is Christian, forsooth, and we have treaty 
relations with her; England, with its "Aliens' 
Bill," aimed at the Russian Jews who wish to 
escape being thrown in the river at the frontier, 
is Christian; and my own dear country, that I 
love better than my own life, and only next to 
my God, reads my articles, but would not take 
me in a summer hotel if I applied (but I do not 
apply). 

Christian? You're not Christian, any of you. 
Christianity has no saving qualities. I deny it. 
The first thing a religion should do, is to make 
men humane; yours does not. 

Oh, yes, millions of Christians are humane 
men and women in spite of Christianity, that 
slays, tortures, burns Jews — knouts them, 
strangles babes unborn ! And you all stand 

meaning of this term, Miss Kohn replies : 

"As to the meaning of 'Hep, Hep' : There is no 
absolute certainty, but it is reasonably sure and clear 
that the letters 'H. E. P.' stand for 'Hierasalem Es 
Pedesta'; Jerusalem has fallen, or is falling; and the 
cry of 'Hep, Hep' was the Indian warwhoop of the 
Christians, whenever they started out on a Jewish 
massacre since the Middle Ages. It was of course a 
taunt, and always meant a threat ; viz : 'Your citadel 
has fallen, your kingdom is at end, you cannot protect 
yourselves, so now we can pillage, ravage, burn, mur- 
der, ravish'; and they did. Nice, isn't it?" 



And the Mystery of the Jew ioi 

by, and say "it is against international politics"; 
politics ! forsooth again. 

You say we killed Jesus. We did not. But 
supposing we did ; we only killed one man ; you 
have slaughtered millions of us. You want us 
to accept Jesus, in whose name you despise, and 
scorn, and outrage, and humiliate and butcher 
us? Never, never, NEVER, through time and 
eternity. We need practice no sacrifices. We 
ARE the sacrifice. 

Yes, we circumcise to-day; our religion is not 
mere ethics; it is the worship in our synagogue, 
and our hearty love of the Eternal, Lord God, 
Sabaoth, the Lord of Lords, and God of Gods, 
Adonai, Elohim; the God of Abraham, of Isaac, 
of Jacob. He who led us out of Egypt, who 
kept us in the wilderness, whose Shekinah rest- 
ed on us so you nor any man could destroy us, 
neither by fire nor water, nor torture, nor hatred. 
Him we worship to-day as of old time, the God 
of Israel. 

None else to Eternity and beyond. We for- 
give you, we will love you, but we will worship 
only the God of Israel; the best of us, the worst 
of us, we will worship only Him, the God of 
our fathers, of our prophets, the God of Israel, 
through time and eternity and beyond. 
Yours sincerely, 

Annette Kohn. 

Firshall, Mo., Nov. 26th, 1906. 
Miss Annette Kohn, New York : 

Miss Kohn — Not with the purpose of taking 
more of your time, do I reply to your letter of 



io2 The Story of the Covenant 

the 23d; for, like yourself, I am a busy person; 
and the long list of your occupations warns me 
not to infringe; suggesting, at the same time, 
while you may consider yourself a "lady of leis- 
ure," there is room for grave suspicion that you 
lead a slavish life; not giving yourself time to 
think for yourself along independent lines — for 
instance, as to the real gravamen of the subject 
we have had under discussion. 

The episode of our short correspondence has 
been a pleasant one for me. I wish I could say 
a satisfying one; but you have stated features 
which I do not understand how an intelligent 
woman like yourself can maintain. And since 
you probably will not have, or take time, to reply 
to this, I will make a short summary of what our 
letters have produced; to be considered, if you 
wish, as criticisms; the "conclusion of the whole 
matter." 

(1) I cannot understand your God: "The 
Jews conceived a spiritual God through Abra- 
ham" ; and "our God is ineffable and pure Spirit" ; 
and yet "Abraham knew the voice of the Lord." 
I cannot understand how "Spirit" has a voice; 
as you say He has "no shape, no form." And 
yet He spoke to Moses, to Joshua, to Samuel, 
and to others. Is not your conception crude? 
If words of Scripture mean anything, they mean 
that the God of your fathers was a personal God, 
Who created, Who led, Who provided, and Who 
was, from everlasting, to everlasting. And your 
definition brings your religion down, as I said, to 
a mere code of ethics. The mere fact that you 
have a synagog, and observe the ritual, does 



and the Mystery of the Jew 103 

not mean that you have a vital religion. You 
have relegated your personal God to the Chris- 
tains. 

(2) You have abandoned the Law of sacri- 
fices without warrant. Your David says there 
are none righteous. You say the righteous shall 
be saved. HOW? If I were a Jew, I should 
observe the sin offering, as well as the other 
necessary sacrifices, as stipulated in the Law. 
It would be my hope: my only hope, of salva- 
tion. How you expect to be saved without, you 
have never said. If you say you are righteous, 
and without sin, you say a remarkable thing. 
If you have sin, how will you escape the conse- 
quences ? 

(3) You lay the Inquisition on the "Chris- 
tians," and assume that the Catholic Church is 
Christian. Now, Miss Kohn, that is unpardon- 
able. I know from your letters you are well 
read; too well read not to know that the litera- 
ture covering the period of the 16th and 17th 
centuries is burdened witn the history of the 
efforts of the Protestant Church to throw off 
the incubus of perverted Catholicism. Of course 
you do ; and that the Protestants themselves were 
the chief sufferers. And I feel sure you also 
know that, both as applied to Catholics and 
Protestants, they are Christians only so far as 
they follow the teachings of the Man of Galilee; 
and that His teachings never brought about such 
a condition. 

(4) You must surely know, too, that these 
teachings never prompted Germany or Austria, 
as you state; that Dreyfus was not sent to 



104 The Story of the Covenant 

Devil's Island by people who practiced Christian- 
ity; and that he is not there now, entirely be- 
cause of the sub-strata workings in France of 
the teachings of this same Galilean ; that Russia 
is as much anathematized by Protestants as by 
you. And the other countries you name? And 
as to who is at the bottom of the great wrongs 
you mention? Oh! It's the WHY, the WHY; 
and your people won't see it because they will 
not; they, the jest and toy of the rabble — not 
of the Christian, God forbid! They are your 
friends, if you have any among any people. 

(5) The Messiah. In that you have not re- 
plied to my question, I judge you do not indulge 
a ''lively hope" of His coming; that you count 
the prophecies a nullity; that hope deferred hath 
made the Jewish heart sick; that the awful con- 
clusion of the book of Malachi goes for nothing; 
and that the Judaism of to-day is a mere moral 
code, with all its glories in the past, and with 
none for the future. I can deduce nothing else 
from your letters. 

(6) You say you will not accept Jesus as 
the Messiah, in Whose name we despise, and 
scorn and outrage, humiliate and butcher you? 
We do not do that. Never in His name. He 
taught us better than that. Many a prayer have 
I heard for your people from the pulpits of the 
Presbyterian Church, but no anathemas. This 
very land and Republic, where you are freer 
than anywhere else on earth, was settled and 
founded by the Christian. Religious liberty was 
given you by the Christian. Vengeance is mine, 
saith the Lord. It is not ours. We are all, all 



and the Mystery of the Jew 105 

of us, just alike, sinful, with no reason to be 
proud ; all suppliants. And how unseemly 
would it be for "us" to do anything to humiliate 
"you." We do not. 

(7) You say, NEVER, NEVER, will you 
through time or eternity, take Him. I think 
otherwise. Not, perhaps, in your lifetime, or in 
mine; but in His own time; His, the personal, 
loving God of Abraham, our joint spiritual 
father; Who is; not Who is Spirit. And then 
we shall all see that, as Paul says, the Jew had 
the advantage every way; even though he has 
not availed himself of it for nearly twenty cen- 
turies. 

I feel sure that what I have said will be taken 
aright by you. Sincerely, 

J. L. WOODBRIDGE. 



FINIS 



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